According to Stijn Vandenbroucke, West Ham United's chief medical officer, Andy Carroll is fit to play a part in Saturday's game against Southampton, the Big striker has recovered from his hamstring injury and will go straight in to the squad for Saturday's late afternoon match on the south coast, Carroll's availability will hopefully free up Enner Valencia and the other players who have been forced to fill the gap. Diafra Sakho and Manuel Lanzini are in the final stages of their rehab and have just started to train with the first team, although neither player will be unnecessarily rushed back, in Lanzini's case in particular, 'once bitten, twice shy'! Having had to cope without three out of four target men injured for so long, it will be interesting to see what effect their collective return will have on an already buoyant squad. Cheikhou Kouyate has recovered from a slight niggle, but Sam Byram will not be available meaning that James Tomkins will again play as full back despite having sustained a nasty head injury against Liverpool that required a dozen stitches. Joey O'Brien is available and has been retained as back up despite Sam Allardyce wanting to take him to Sunderland, West Ham being of the opinion that the club have paid to rehabilitate the player from his long term injury, so he might as well be retained until the season's end just in case.- Ed
