Andy Carroll's Latest Injury Leaves Player and West Ham Counting the Cost

For the second consecutive season, it looks like Andy Carroll will muster just 12 Premier League starts for West Ham United—not quite a third of a possible 38 he could have been involved in.

If, as appears likely, Carroll now misses the rest of this season with a knee injury sustained against Southampton on Wednesday, the 26-year-old’s career will once again be halted by medical problems—just as it looked like it was finally starting to hit a real groove once again.

"Andy Carroll will have surgery on his injured knee on Tuesday following assessment by a specialist on Friday afternoon," a West Ham statement said on Friday. "The England international injured his left knee during the second half of Wednesday night's 0-0 Barclays Premier League draw at Southampton.

"The recovery phase is expected to keep Carroll out for the remainder of the 2014-15 season."

It is a devastating blow for Carroll, who missed the early part of the season as he recovered from an ankle problem. Then a run of games after returning to fitness saw him contribute five goals and an assist in his 12 league starts, the ex-Newcastle United and Liverpool forward showing glimpses of his potential—you would say “his old self”, but we’ve perhaps never had the chance to see that over a sustained period—as West Ham continued to defy most pre-season expectations.

On Friday morning, Hammers boss Sam Allardyce was hopeful that Carroll’s injury would not be too serious. But closer examination evidently uncovered the full extent of the issue.

"It's a big blow for him and a big blow for us. It's one we have had to cope with,” Allardyce said, per the Daily Star. "Hopefully it will be 4-6 weeks I would have thought, if we are lucky, depending on Andy's recovery rate. Some players recover and heal quicker than others.

"It's a completely new injury. Not a recurrence of an old one.

"A full diagnosis is yet to come. We will probably have it by the end of today."

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Instead, Carroll now has to recommit himself to the sort of gruelling rehabilitation process that he has embarked on a number of times before (much of last season was ravaged by a fractured foot). Each time he is forced to do it, the striker could be forgiven for losing faith that his body will ever hold up long enough for him to fully express his ability on the pitch.

It is noteworthy that West Ham’s statement says only that he is likely to miss the rest of the season—which is three full months away. While it might be doom-mongering to suggest that Carroll’s lay-off could extend into the 2015-16 season—and that is something the club have simply declined to reveal at this time—if it is one of the more serious knee injuries, then unfortunately it is not something we can rule out.

Allardyce continued: 

"

Yes, it's traumatic when somebody is going through a period where they always seem to be, in a short period of time, having to overcome injury after injury.

We thought we were there [with Andy]. Then, all of sudden, with the Liverpool game, now a different injury, albeit to the same knee, it's a huge concern for us all.

It's very depressing for Andy. He knows the process. He knows he has to be very strong in terms of his approach to overcome this injury and get back as quickly as possible.

"

Hopefully that is soon, certainly in time for the new season. But increasingly, we are reaching a point where we might never see what Carroll could achieve in the game, adding him to the list of players like Ledley King, Jonathan Woodgate and Owen Hargreaves who were robbed of the chance to maximise their careers by the frailty of their physiques.

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When Carroll played 39 games for Newcastle in the Championship in 2009-10 (33 of them starts), or indeed played some part in 35 of 38 league games in his first full season at Liverpool (21 of them starts), there was no real indication that Carroll was as injury-prone as he evidently seems to be. But since arriving at West Ham, he has been unable to put a consistent run together, something that has hampered his ability to establish himself for the club and, by extension, his country.

Much has been made of Harry Kane’s recent form and his almost-certain inclusion in the next England squad—indeed, head coach Roy Hodgson basically admitted as much this week, per the BBC—but Carroll, too, must have been pressing his claim with some of his recent performances.

Hodgson is not thought to be a big fan of the striker (even though he took Carroll to Euro 2012), but it remains the case that Carroll offers attributes no other English striker, bar perhaps Rickie Lambert or Peter Crouch, can offer: A genuine Plan B, where his aerial ability and physical strength could offer an intriguing alternative to the movement and technique-based approach of the likes of Daniel Sturridge, Raheem Sterling and Danny Welbeck.

Kane, while undoubtedly very raw, is perhaps more of the same in that regard, and Hodgson will surely feel he needs a variety of options come tournament time for the Three Lions. But, with so many players other than Kane also vying for places with their goalscoring exploits, Carroll has to earn his place in the squad through his performances at club level just like everyone else, and an injury removes him from the pool for far longer than just the time he is sidelined.

If we assume Carroll will be fit for the start of the new season, he is still unlikely to make Hodgson’s early season squads (when, hopefully, European Championship qualification will be secured) because he will not have played enough club games to prove his form and supplant someone else. But if he has not made the squad by the end of the year, that does not give him much time—or many opportunities—to press his place before the European Championships start.

The good news for Carroll in this situation, if indeed there is any, is that West Ham cannot really do anything but give him every opportunity to keep coming back. When they signed Carroll in 2013, the Hammers gave him a six-year contract—with a club-activated option for a further two years. Even if that option is not exercised, Carroll is still under contract until the summer of 2019.

With his injury record over recent seasons, no well-run club is going to offer big money for him—so unless West Ham are willing to write off a huge loss on the player, they will have to persevere with him and hope that he eventually overcomes his injury problems.

That may be no bad thing for either party, given that they all will know where they stand. Carroll’s club and country aspirations have taken another huge hit, however, a setback that will take longer than his mere injury lay-off to come back from.