Losing Carroll to injury would be a massive blow.
Posted on September 8th, 2010 | 132 Comments |
The Gateshead lad apparently hasn’t trained all week but should be fit to face Blackpool at the weekend.
Carroll was struggling with an ankle injury before the Wolves game. He played in that but he had to come off in the second-half, although by then he had already done the damage and scored the equaliser. Then he got sent home from England U21 duty because of the same ankle injury, and he hasn’t trained since. So just how he can be fit to face Blackpool at the weekend is slightly confusing then.
Carroll is proving himself to be an invaluable asset to the team. From around the Christmas period last year the lad has been in excellent form, probably one of the first names on the team-sheet in fairness. Only three games into the new season and he is picking up where he left off last season, which is great, brilliant, but it makes the hole that he leaves when he has to miss a game that much bigger.
The striker position is the one that really worries me in all honesty. I don’t want to be too down on our backup strikers and say they won’t score goals, because I think they will, but will they worry defences like Carroll does? Will Shola Ameobi have defenders scared? Will Ranger? Lovenkrands? Best? I’m not so sure.
We have Hatem Ben Arfa who is best emplyed as a second striker, apparently, but it would be asking a bit much for our new signing to step up to the plate immediately in event of Carroll missing out, if he misses out.
Which kind of brings me onto my next point. There is no denying that losing Carroll to an injury would be a huge blow to Newcastle, so has he become irreplaceable within our current setup? Granted he has earned the position of being top of the striking pecking order, but do we risk becoming overly reliant on a player who has all the potential to be an international player without having the top flight practice to prove it as such? Possibly.
As I mentioned earlier, Carroll should be fit for the Blackpool game, but it is worrying when you look at the hole it would leave in our attack if we ever did lose him to an injury, or if he had to do some time in jail or whatever.
Concerned? Aye!
To be honest if he aint fully fit I’d leave him out from the start against Blackpool and start with Shola instead.
If we really need to we can do a Bobby esq 3 pronged sub and bring on Ben Arfa, Carroll and McLovin at once!!