Head of West Ham Medical Gary Lewin says Andy Carroll is his own worst enemy. Speaking to the Newham Recorder before the International break Lewin said of Andy Carroll: “He has been training for just over two weeks and with the international break it will be even more by the time we get to Huddersfield, so he will be ready to start playing, when he does come back, it will be a gradual thing, you can’t just throw him in at the deep end,” he insisted.

“We did it with Diafra Sakho, he played for 20 minutes, then half an hour and then an hour. Andy will be the same, if we don’t do that then he will break down.”

“Andy needed a bit longer than the other injured players,” he said. “He had done his rehab and was in a good place, but unconditioned, so he needed to do a pre-season, so we spent the first two or three weeks doing that with him.”

“He is such a robust, physical player,” said Lewin. “Coming in cold on what has happened to him before, I think he was his own worst enemy. Once he could train he wants to play and when he plays there is no holding back.”

“He does want to play, that is all he wants to do,” insisted Lewin. “You hear a lot of nonsense about him not wanting to play, seriously he just wants to play football. Although that is a strength, it is also a problem because we have to manage him, but it is a good problem to have.”