Head of Medical and Sports Science Stijn Vandenbroucke hints Andy Carroll is a doubt for Saturday and looks like he is getting his excuses in early.
Stijn tells WHUFC.com “Andy Carroll came off with an injury at St Mary’s. He had a similar problem in the game at Middlesbrough, but we were able to prepare him for the Manchester City and the Southampton games, where he did brilliantly with limited training.”
“We will now work with Andy to prepare him for Saturday. It is always a fine balance not to put him at risk of serious injury as he has not trained a lot in 2017.”
He confirms “Havard Nordtveit and Sam Byram have been training all week. Sam missed the Southampton game as a precaution, having only recently returned from a long-term hamstring surgery and rehabilitation period. Alvaro Arbeloa is also in full training.”
“Arthur Masuaku has turned the last corner in his own rehab and has been training with the PL2 squad this week under the direction of our rehabilitation fitness coach. He will return to first-team training on Friday.”
“Diafra Sakho is continuing his rehab following his back surgery in December and we are looking at him being brought back at the end of March or start of April.”
“Angelo Ogbonna underwent successful surgery on his knee in Paris and has now returned to London to continue his rehab, which is a 12 to 16-week programme.”
I think he will play.There is a two week break after Saturday so get him out there against wba then he gets some repair time.
Agree, this is an important game for our league position to aim for eighth.
we wont see him again now for weeks
He can have Sunday 12th to Friday 23rd off.
At least Ayew is back as an option .
And how has Ayew been an alternative to AC??? Never in a million years.This is a must win game and an 85% AC is better than Ayew. Play Ayew ahead of Feghouli, bring Byram back to Rb and play Keyoute ahead of Noble. We will then beat WBA.
So you’d still leave out lanzini? Interesting…
Stick him in a deep freeze until saturday lunchtime,thaw him out & he will be good to go at 3pm 😉
“Carroll back in international frame” and now I read “Carroll is touch and go for Saturday”.
How can an injury prone player who is at best a week to week proposition be in the international frame? Carroll’s history suggests he will get injured again and probably sooner than later.Spare me the rubbish about international duties thanks.IMHO
Her we go again. This can’t go on. He makes such a difference to the team but it is just too big a risk having no backup. Looks like he might have done enough to keep us safe this year-again. I do get that if Hogan was the best we could do then probably better not to buy him in Jan. Now they are saying Sakho may not be back until April, so that’ s really next season.
I notice Saints got in Gabbiadini without much fuss. Don’t think he is close to AC but he came in & scored. Personally I would let him recover & have the three weeks rest. If we then have him for 2 months we should be ok. If he makes the injury worse on Sat he could be out for two months & we will soon be back in bottom half.
I notice the fitness bloke says the problem is that he has not trained much. Bilic was saying two days ago the secret to him staying fit now (ha ha) is that he is doing plenty of training. Left hand/ right hand?