West Ham boss Slaven Bilic insists starting Andy Carroll against Manchester United would be 'suicidal'

In contention: Andy Carroll
West Ham United via Getty Images
Sam Long30 November 2016

Throwing West Ham striker Andy Carroll in for 90 minutes against Manchester United in tonight's EFL Cup quarter-final would be "suicidal", according to Slaven Bilic.

Carroll has struggled with a knee injury throughout the season and has not featured for the Hammers since August's Europa League clash against Astra Giurgiu.

The 27-year-old is no stranger to extended spells on the sidelines, having suffered a succession of long-term injuries since joining West Ham on a permanent basis in 2013.

Carroll is in contention for tonight's trip to Old Trafford but Bilic is keen to manage the England international's workload with an upcoming Premier League game at Arsenal to also consider.

"We are talking about a player who hasn't played since the game in Romania.

"For Andy Carroll, it should be good to play 20 minutes or half an hour for Saturday.

"For Andy and every player in that condition it would be great to play a part, but if you are talking about 90 minutes on Wednesday and 90 minutes on Saturday, it is suicidal," he added.

Carroll's return would be a timely boost as the Hammers have recently lost Diafra Sakho to a hamstring injury which could rule the Senegal international out for several weeks.

But Bilic has stressed that Carroll should not be expected to hit the ground running after such a lengthy period out of the side.

"You can't keep the players in the fridge and then throw them in and expect them to score again or score a hat-trick like he did at Upton Park.

"He wants to play every game, he's that kind of person. He likes to train, to play. It's about his knee.

"You have a scan, the opinion of the medical team and then we see how he feels."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in