Once again injury doubts about Marko Arnautovic appear to be receding for the fifth or sixth week on the trot if not more.
During the international break with no match to concentrate on and therefore no injury issue with which to preoccupy ourselves all the chat was about Arnie and whether he would be staying at West Ham.
Now before we go any further let me make it clear I love the bloke who is probably the most wholehearted player in the claret and blue if Declan Rice will excuse me.
However, these constant injuries towards the end of games just have me wondering if there’s a little bit of the Hollywoods going on because the reality is Arnie has missed just two games this season.
Given the amount of newsprint and pixels devoted to the various injury problems that all seems a bit bizarre or is it just me being cynical.
In itself none of this would be of any great concern but there is one aspect of it that is probably quite worrying – the over reliance we attach to the lad which the very regular bulletins on his health bear out.
If he actually were to be out for an extended period you wonder how we would manage up front which is why I am hoping against hope Andy Carroll can make a full and proper recovery for once.
For as much as we all think of Arnie he, like every other player, needs to have the pressure of competition and at his best Carroll can provide that.
In the meantime should our favourite Austrian make it as expected on Saturday keep on eye on things between say, 4.35 and 4.55 pm.
COYI
Love the bloke but both myself and son said the same thing last Saturday. We both thought he was play acting when he went down