Another seven days… another depressing report on possible return dates for Diafra Sakho and Andy Carroll.
Last week we were told Carroll had “several bridges to cross”, this week we get nothing more than “Andy Carroll and Gokhan Tore continue to work on their rehabilitation at Rush Green.”
Then comes the Sakho report after off the record briefings that he is closing in on a comeback.
Apparently not so according to the 
the club’s top medic Stijn Vandenbroucke in his latest update.
He says the striker has been training all week with the Under-23s in controlled but hard sessions and adds: “Diaf is in the final stages of his own pre-season training schedule and he will join the first-team squad next week.”
However, then comes the rub with Stijn adding: “He will be with them for several weeks before he will be re-introduced gradually into games.”
Great! Pray there’s no more injures to front men although of course the good news is that Andre Ayew is back. Very much a mixed bag of information and not as encouraging as we might have hoped.
Does anyone know what Sakho’s injury is/was?
Back injury
Ment to be that bad back injury still.
Why dont the club not just say they are both shot to pieces & we wont see them for months instead of this weekly bull that keeps coming out..
Usually it’s back related.Some might even give a “missing spine” diagnosis?
Lol Roman. Interesting that whilst the club will at least admit Sakho is about to rejoin the first team, albeit he is around a month away from playing, the silence on AC is deafening. Maybe these two’s issues aren’t all physical? Ayew’s injury seemed worse yet he had the determination to get himself fit and back into contention as quickly as he could, whereas these two seem less able or inclined? Tells its own story perhaps?
When was Carroll supposed to be back originally? The middle to late Sept wasnt it.Someone somewhere isnt telling us silly naive punters the truth i dont think.There are a lot of porkies flying round…
He said himself all was well and it was 4-6 weeks !!!!
Yeah he did indeed but that was to counter a report the day before he had suffered a setback..So who was doing the bluffing then?!?!?! 🙂
After the pictures coming out of Carroll maybe he is having to get his physio in the pub, I feel for Carroll tho must be aweful being injured so much totally depressing for the guy. Hope he gets there but his size an style of play may see him continually injured
These fellas need to spend a bit of time with Ayew’s Ghanaian doctors. They worked wonders..
Maybe Bilic has had enough of both of them, and is just getting them ready to sell in Jan, hence the slow progress.
I thought when WBA didnt sign Sakho & it fell through Pulis said he was no good to them injured because they needed him for the start of the season & he would have been 2 or 3 weeks off being ready.
Then he comes back to us & its almost November & still no sign of him.
I agree with Alf,we aint getting the full SP on these two from the club.
sakho played really well for us in his first half a season. Then he got this serious back injury which stopped him from playing for Senegal. I remember allardyce supposedly accused senegal team doctors of making the injury worse while he was away on international duty, but whatever the facts, sakho has only played sporadically since then, and has never returned to the form he showed early on. Some people make their judgements on a player based on first impressions. Maybe that’s human nature and in his early games sakho scored in every game. Opinions were formed and once an opinion is formed it’s hard to let go. On the contrary a player such as zaza or tore will face an uphill battle to be accepted and probably never will be no matter how hard they try because opinions have been formed, put out there and so are very hard to change. attitude has to play a big part in a players recovery from injury. Both sakho and carrolls attitudes have to be in questioned as regards to “how much do they really want it” I have never questioned withers work rate when they are on the pitch and would hope they work as hard to return from injury off it. Whether that was true that sakho threw his toys out of the Pram when Carroll was chosen by Bilic to play instead of him against Arsenal, who knows. All I know is that carrol answered his critics by scoring a hatrick in that game against Arsenal. He was an unstoppable force for 90 minutes. So that’s all sakho has to do in response to his critics. Come back and prove he is as good as the player that played for us al that time ago in his first five or six games time for sakho to give us a second first impression.
Who would take Rooney in January and for how much?
Salvo should be back in time to put himself in the shop window, if we replace either of them it should be with someone that has some pace and physicality, either that or give Fletcher some more game time which most of us would like 😀 I wonder if when Martinez is fit again he will be in with a shout ?
Presume Ayew will disappear off for the AN Cup in January – Sakho also! That should add some focus for the Jan window anyway…
I do not understand Bilic in that he has not given Fletcher more of a chance , he looks head & Shoulders above Zaza ??? – as for Carroll & Sakho – raffle the pair of them to the championship and below at 500,000 quid a ticket and when the winners moan give em their money back !! – simple !!