Even though Andy Carroll’s heel injury is not as serious as was initially reported, West Ham coach Sam Allardyce has described the injury as“devastating” nonetheless. Carroll sustained the injury on the final day of last season, and spent the summer recovering only to pick up a new injury in training earlier this week.Initially it was feared that Carroll could miss the entire season, and while that is no longer the case, Allardyce felt the need to sign free agent Mladen Petric as cover.
“It’s devastating for Andy and ourselves,” Allardyce told Sky Sports News. “It’s not frustrating, it is devastating, because we have gone through the process of 16 weeks to go along withspecialist reports on how we deal with the rehab when Andy is recovered from this injury. Unfortunately for us, the specialist said there was a fiveper cent chance it may break down again and Andy isone of those five percent unfortunately.”
He noted that there was no timetable for the England striker’s return. “What we have to do is make sure we treat him in the rightmanner as quickly as we possibly can again and get it right as quickly as we can,” he said. “It is certainly not as serious as last time, that is the one encouraging thing but hugely,hugely disappointing for him and for us.”