West Ham United boss Slaven Bilic has admitted that Andy Carroll is treated differently to the rest of the Hammers squad.
Carroll has struggled with a whole host of injury problems over the last couple of seasons, but the powerful striker returned to action in West Ham’s 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town in the Premier League on Monday night.
In his first appearance since damaging a thigh in April, Carroll won 13 aerial duels during an impressive performance at the London Stadium.
Bilic has paid tribute to the qualities of the 28-year-old, and has revealed that the centre-forward is given ‘special treatment’ at West Ham due to his importance to the football club as a whole.
Bilic told reporters, in quotes carried by West Ham’s official website:
“Carroll is one of them [who can lift a team]. We’ve been saying it for two years, 100 times. He’s the player that everybody knows that he makes teams proud and he’s a player you can’t ignore.
“There are some players – and Andy’s one – that you have to find special treatment for. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t train the whole week. Most likely then he will get injured.
“On the other hand you can’t treat him as you’re treating a 20-year-old, like Declan Rice or Domingos Quina, who could train six hours a day. You need to find a balance.”
West Ham will look to make it back-to-back Premier League wins when they travel to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday afternoon, with Carroll expected to feature from the start once again.
