Sam Allardyce does not expect West Ham United winger Stewart Downing to be out for ten weeks and insists it will be another fortnight before Andy Carroll makes his comeback. Downing suffered a deep gash across his calf and Achilles during last week's 4-1 defeat at his former club Liverpool which required 12 stitches. Reports have suggested that Downing could be out until March, but Allardyce is optimistic that he will be back before that date. "I don't think it will be that long," said Allardyce at his press conference ahead of Saturday's game at home to Sunderland. "We always try not to be too specific about the date of any particular injury. First and foremost it's about how quickly does the scar heal, does Stewart recover from that and then when he starts training again how does he feel on a day-to-day basis? "At this moment in time it's very difficult to say based on the healing process as we don't know how long that will be. "We've done all aspects possible to make sure that the one big thing that is stopped with this is infection. The size and depth of the wound means that the last thing we want after the surgeon stitching him back together is an infection. That would put him back a period of time. "Hopefully there'll be no infection in there and I think his recovery will be much quicker than ten weeks." Meanwhile, Allardyce is adamant Carroll will not face fellow strugglers Sunderland as the striker continues to build up his fitness following a heel injury. The West Ham boss added: "There's no chance that Andy Carroll will play any part because he's only been training on his own at the moment. "It's like learning how to walk again. He is weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks behind where we thought he would be. "Going through gentle processes of rebuilding his confidence in the injury not reoccurring and that's the big thing. Once you've recovered from one injury there's always a confidence factor when you come back into training over whether it's okay. "When you come back to training and it goes again then there's a greater fear the second time you come back. I think that from Andy's point of view we take things on Andy's say so as well as the specialists. "He's got no chance of playing in the next two weeks." More headlines
Some people will still come on and say it makes no difference ....... at least they won't be able to trot out the dreary 'Andy Carroll is nailed on to score' ****e.
I heard them on talkshite saying "Don;t judge Allardyce until Andy Carroll is fit" - Sorry but WHAT!!! If you have no strikers and put all of your eggs in one fbasket with a striker who has had a large number of injury problems (and is a complete cock) then surely you get judged on that. They would sharp have judged Arsene Wenger if Ozil had picked up an injury - they'd have trotted out the "He shouldn't have spent all that money on one player" ****e. Re the game - It is a good thing that Nolan isn't playing - he's dangerous. must win is overused but this is definitely a must win!
Carroll and Nolan being out can't hurt. They'd be busting a gut to put one over us and I couldn't hack another "chicken dance" from the latter. Downing will be a big loss, so it could be the time to play them. Then again, this is us we're talking about...
Why are you all saying Nolan is a big miss for us? He hasnt scored since the opening day and now he is suspended we will finally see Ravel in his natural position. Carrol has been a big miss our entire team is built around him. Even so, we're still not in the bottom 3 and once he is back we will fly up the league. Im going for a 3-1 home win. You could be a long way adrift by 5pm tomorrow.
Allardyce will never drop Nolan regardless of form. Nolan has been outstanding for us for two seasons and remains an important part of the squad, but he has been poor of late and most fans consider his ban as a blessing in disguise because now we will finally see the midfield 3 we all want.
Since when did Carroll become a good player anyway? Youd think the way everyone was going on Ronaldo was missing. Like liverpool Sam paid over the odds for him anyway. He fooked up even more though cause he blew his full kitty on him. Wes Brown had him in his back pocket last time he faced him so if he was fit it wouldnt have really fazed me!
Wes Brown, whos won nearly every trophy going but has been unlucky with injuries vs James Collins. I know who id rather have in my starting 11!
