West Ham United will definitely be without Andy Carroll for Tuesday’s FA Cup replay with Shrewsbury Town, while Chicharito’s availability will be determined prior to the match, according to coaching assistant Alan Irvine.
The Hammers are preparing to take on League One Shrewsbury Town this week, having drawn with the Shrews 0-0 in the initial fixture last Sunday.
A decision on who will play for the Irons in this midweek fixture is yet to be made, Irvine suggested, but the coach did confirm that West Ham will be without striker Carroll for the match. The 29-year-old was also out for the weekend’s win over Huddersfield Town.
Irvine also revealed that Chicharito had been sent home from training on Monday due to being ill, and a decision would be made about his potential to play in Tuesday’s match in the morning.
Chicharito actually came in this morning and was sent home unwell, and we don’t know if he will be okay for tomorrow.
Alan Irvine
“We’ve got some bumps and bruises as you would expect, following the game at the weekend,” Irvine said.
“Andy Carroll is not fit yet. Chicharito actually came in this morning and was sent home unwell, and we don’t know if he will be okay for tomorrow. It’s described as flu, but I don’t know if it’s actually flu or not. We will find out tomorrow how he is.
“The good thing is that we haven’t had to pick the team yet. We will see where everybody is in the morning.”
The Irons will also be playing without Diafra Sakho with Irvine indicating the forward had been injured for a couple of weeks.
The Senegalese international’s future with West Ham has been the subject of speculation in recent media reports but, while Irvine said the team would not have Sakho involved on Tuesday, the attacker’s future was with the Premier League side.
On Sakho, he continued: “Absolutely (he has a future). He’s injured at the moment and he’s been injured since the transfer window opened. He’s not been on the training ground at all and to be honest we’ve seen very little of him, because the players who are injured report in to the medical room. He’s not available for selection, it’s as simple as that.”
West Ham named just six players on the bench on Saturday in the victory against Huddersfield and Irvine admitted he had been left bemused by the Club’s ongoing injury situation, with the coach saying that there’s not been a situation yet where a senior player has been left out.
“It’s been a strange situation. We haven’t left a senior player in the stand yet,” Irvine added. “That’s astonishing. Usually the manager has to go to a few senior players and say ‘sorry, you’re not in the squad today’. We haven’t had that once in the time we’ve been here. And that’s counting Declan Rice as a senior player.
“It’s been easier in some ways, because that’s not a conversation the manager enjoys, to have to tell a senior player that. So it’s been easy for David, he’s not had to do that!”