Sam Allardyce: Andy Carroll's injury won’t leave us hamstrung as we’re not a one-man team

 
14 September 2012

Much of the focus since our heartening victory over Fulham has been on Andy Carroll — first for the good job he did on his debut and then, unfortunately, the hamstring injury which keeps him out this weekend.

There has even been a suggestion that he will be fit for our next home match against Sunderland in just over a week.I wish I could confirm this but it’s not possible. The original diagnosis was six weeks but it could be quicker. It’s just not feasible to say when he will be back but, obviously, our medical staff are working hard on him.

To get a player back as quick as possible requires assessing the injury correctly and then providing the treatment.

The general rule is that you have to stop the bleeding as quickly as you can, which basically means ice and then elevation.

As soon as you’ve done that you can begin the recovery process and that means reducing the scar tissue, which is a big thing in a hamstring injury.

I should know. I did a few hamstrings in my playing career but they were poorly diagnosed until late on when they found a problem in my lower back.

Andy’s hamstring was unusual because he did it jumping rather than running. The sad thing was that we were preparing to get him off at the time because he’d done his job and he was tiring as he hadn’t played that much.

I’ve never seen a one-man team, though, and we have a decent squad now. Carlton Cole and Modibo Maiga are top players we can bring in and the challenge for them is to maintain the standard of performance we showed against Fulham.

It was a team that fashioned the win over Fulham — not Andy Carroll on his own, even though he did very well on his debut.

We have an excellent squad now and I was reflecting on that yesterday when, apart from Winston Reid, the players all came together for the first time after the international break. (Winston didn’t return until yesterday afternoon from New Zealand’s World Cup qualifier against the Solomon Islands).

We look a good outfit with strength in depth and full of ability. Hopefully the team will play as well as they look. The final three players we signed really topped it off for me — Matt Jarvis, Andy and Yossi Benayoun.

I couldn’t understand the criticism we received from some quarters for signing Matt, saying it was too much money.

My reply to that is no one got more crosses in than he did last season in the Premier League and you don’t see too many people moaning about Chelsea paying £32million for Eden Hazard. Compare that to £10.75m for Matt.

The three are quality players and are a credit to the commitment of co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold.

Roberto will be fine but City may struggle in Europe

The Champions League swings back into action next week with Chelsea trying to defend the trophy they won so memorably last season.

Roberto di Matteo knows his squad have to raise their game because defending the trophy will be more difficult than winning it the first time and everyone will be gunning for them.

The snipers have been out already, saying that Roberto will struggle to handle the pressure now he has the job permanently but he handled things superbly when he took over at a difficult time last season.

The team got behind him from a difficult position and went on to win the major European club prize his way.

They will need to be at their very best from the start and I fancy them to go through to the knock-out stages.

I’m not so sure about the champions, Manchester City, though. To compete successfully at all levels, Premier League, Champions League and the domestic cups, you need to have the right formula. Whether City have that in only their second year is uncertain.

Managing your resources and getting the best out of them consistently is a juggling act.

City certainly have the talent to cope with the challenge although their squad are not the biggest.

The joke’s on James for his stag surprise

There was a match of a different sort at Upton Park the other day, when the actor, comedian and lifelong West Ham fan James Corden had part of his stag party there.

James was blindfolded by his friends, transported to Upton Park and deposited in the home dressing room, where Mark Noble and I greeted him.

The look on his face when the blindfold came off was an education and that was followed by a five-a-side, which I refereed.

There wasn’t a lot of skill on view apart from Jamie Redknapp, who still looks useful, but a good time was had by all, especially James, who played on the pitch where he has seen his West Ham heroes do battle so many times.

I don’t know where they ended up after that and I don’t want to know but I am sure the party went on for some time. I wish him and his bride-to-be, Julia Carey, every success in the future.

Swift justice is needed after despicable lies

The real truth — finally revealed — about the Hillsborough disaster has been truly shocking and posed the question: How can we have faith in our system any longer?

The sheer scale of the doctoring of police statements is truly despicable and shocked me as the son of a police sergeant of 25 years’ service who berated anyone who stepped out of line.

The only positive is that the persistence of people who really knew the truth has paid off and vindication has finally followed.

A lot of questions now have to be asked, including why did it take 23 years for the truth to finally be made public and why was it necessary to tell lies on such a scale?

I just hope now that the families who are still grieving can just have some peace and relief.

Please, though, don’t let it be another five or six years before justice is done. My fear is the legal process will be elongated and convoluted rather than dealt with swiftly and summarily, as it should be now, for the sake of the people who died and their families.

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