Crocked Carroll faces six weeks on sidelines

ANDY CARROLL has suffered fresh injury frustration with the news that he faces up to two months on the sidelines with a hamstring problem. The striker sustained the injury in the win over Bournemouth on Tuesday night and early scans have revealed a hamstring tear. Carroll is likely to miss four to six weeks, but club medics will take a cautious approach to his recovery, meaning he may not be ready to return until the end of March. And Carroll was clearly angered by the setback, tweeting: ‘Words can’t describe how I feel today!!’ accompanied by an angry emoji. Speaking after the match, Hammers boss Slaven Bilic revealed his frustration over an injury to a player who only returned to first-team action in September after a seven-month spell out following knee surgery. ‘It’s a big blow for us because he started this game good,’ Bilic told the BBC. ‘I don’t understand it because we’re resting the players. We’re not training a lot. We can only hope it won’t last that long.’ In Carroll’s absence, West Ham relied on midfielder Dimitri

Payet, who made his first start since early November following a spell out with an ankle injury. The 28-year-old Frenchman came up with a goal and an assist to help his team move up to fifth in the Premier League table. ‘I’m very happy because I don’t play for two months,’ he said. ‘I’m very happy I can play, and (get a) good goal, good assist. It’s my job. I’m very happy.’ Captain Mark Noble was also delighted to have Payet back. He said: ‘For sure Dimitri is up there with the best of them but the great thing about him is that there is no ego and what a lot of people don’t see is how hard he works for the team as well.’ Carroll is the 26th player currently sidelined by a hamstring injury in the Premier League as the relentless run of fixtures continues to pose a problem for clubs. Liverpool top the table for hamstring injuries with six casualties.