Slaven Bilic opens up on Andy Carroll absence

It’s now been about two months since Andy Carroll suffered his knee injury after taking a heavy fall in Romania during West Ham’s Europa League play-off first leg against Astra Giurgiu.

Initial diagnosis suggested that West Ham would be without the striker for between 4-6 weeks due to some ligament damage, meaning he should’ve been available for the West Brom game on September 17th, or perhaps the visit of Southampton the following Sunday at the very latest.

Yet here we are, a month further on from the initial scheduled return time and he’s still not back in full first-team training, let alone back on the pitch.

So what’s the hold-up? West Ham’s Head of Medical and Sports Science, Stijn Vandenbroucke, issued an update on Carroll’s condition and rehab yesterday on the official site, outlining that his recovery is taking longer than expected.

The rehabilitation is taking longer than our initial prognosis. However, I would reiterate that he is making steady progress and continues his rehab.

In today’s press conference, Slaven Bilic confirmed these comments by saying the recovery process has been much slower than initially hoped, but Carroll is working hard to get back to full fitness.

Twitter: SB: “@AndyTCarroll picked up the injury in Romania and I didn’t notice he got injured. Originally we thought it would be four to six weeks. (@WestHamUtd)

Twitter: SB: “Now it is longer than that and it is slower than we expected. He is progressing but it is not the speed we wanted. He is working hard. (@WestHamUtd)

Twitter: SB: “He is improving and hopefully he will be back in a few weeks. The rest of the players look good. Only @Aaron_Cresswell will be missing. (@WestHamUtd)

Whether we see Andy Carroll in October remains to be seen, but someone we could see later this month is Andre Ayew, who returned to full first-team training this week. However, Bilic says it’s too soon to throw Ayew back in after nearly 10 weeks out with a thigh injury.

Twitter: SB: “It is a big boost to have @AyewAndre back in training. He looks good and the medical team have done a great job. We are all delighted. (@WestHamUtd)

Twitter: SB: “We will try to prepare him for games as quickly as possible. We don’t want to rush things but it is great that he is back. (@WestHamUtd)