CROCK JACK’S HAMMER BLOW
JACK WILSHERE has suffered a setback in his bid to recover from his latest ankle problem.
The West Ham midfielder, 26, had surgery in mid-September and was expected to be out for up to six weeks.
But his return is likely to be delayed by another week after he suffered more discomfort caused by inflammation.
Boss Manuel Pellegrini said: “Jack felt some pain the last two days here so he needs more time to recover.”
And Pellegrini revealed Andy Carroll is edging closer to a return after stepping up his comeback bid.
Striker Carroll
(inset) suffered a recurrence of an ankle injury during West
Ham’s pre-season training camp in Switzerland that was due to keep him sidelined until December.
Pellegrini said: “Andy is recovering. He started this week working part of the warm up with the whole squad so we will see in the next week how he improves and I hope that maximum 15 days he will at least be working with the squad completely.” In even better injury news for the Hammers, Marko Arnautovic will be fit for tomorrow’s derby clash with Tottenham. Arnautovic has been playing through the pain of a knee injury and was allowed to return to West Ham early from international duty with Austria, after scoring their winner against Northern Ireland.
Pellegrini said: “Marko is OK, he worked when he returned from the squad, he played just one game.
“He worked with the squad without any problems.
“Yes, he must be careful with his knee but it allows for him to play games.”