West Ham boss gives Andy Carroll injury update ahead of Chelsea visit

By Nick Wright Friday, November 30, 2012
11:20 AM

Sam Allardyce is hopeful that on-loan Liverpool striker Andy Carroll will recover from a minor knee injury to face Chelsea on Saturday.

Carroll, who scored his first goal for the Hammers in last weekend’s 3-1 defeat to Spurs, will be assessed before the visit of Rafael Benitez’s side.

Allardyce said: “Andy Carroll has a knock on the knee which we’ll have to assess again later today and tomorrow to see how that is.

“Hopefully that will be ok because we’re really thin on the ground at the moment.”

One man who is certain to feature is midfielder Mark Noble, who is back from suspension having missed the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United after picking up five bookings this season.

Provisional squad: Jaaskelainen, Spiegel, O’Brien, Reid, Collins, Tomkins, McCartney, Demel, Taylor, Diame, Noble, Nolan, Jarvis, Diarra, O’Neil, Maiga, Cole, Carroll, Spence.