Ankle injuries are now in focus at West Ham United

It’s all about ankle injuries at West Ham United at the moment.

With the recent news that Andy Carroll is the latest Hammer to suffer an ankle injury, its clear that the injuries are still coming thick and fast.

They’re just a bit lower down the body than they were a few weeks ago!

At one point it was hamstring injuries that the medical team were having to deal with on a regular basis; now the most recent batch of injuries includes a fair proportion of ankles.

José Fonte, James Collins, and Reece Oxford have all suffered with ankle injuries of late; now Andy Carroll joins the group.

There’s no rhyme or reason to it; and certainly nobody to blame.

And in all honesty we shouldn’t really expect anything else. After all, football is a contact sport and players will pick up injuries as the season goes by. It’s just one of those things despite everyone doing their best to keep the number of injuries down to a minimum.

Injuries can’t be avoided 100% and when you look at the Hammers’ schedule in the last few weeks it’s very easy to see why the risk of injury is ever-present.

Photo by Arfa Griffiths/West Ham United via Getty Images

But if ever a West Ham United player suffered with one injury after another it’s certainly been Andy Carroll.

Although when reading some of the comments written about Andy you could be forgiven for thinking that he goes out and gets himself injured on purpose!

It’s true that the big man has seemingly sustained an almost never-ending run of strains and sprains for as long as long as anyone can remember; but I’m sure he’s going to the first one to acknowledge that.

The issue is that each and every separate injury results in more time lost from training; and if he’s unable to train regularly then he’s fighting a constant battle to reach any decent level of fitness once his injuries have resolved.

In order to have any chance of putting together a sustained run of appearances in the first team he needs to stay as injury-free as possible; which is of course only stating the obvious.

But if he’s coming back from previous injury and his fitness levels haven’t kept up with his recovery rate then its always going to be a battle for him when the games come around.

Photo by Arfa Griffiths/West Ham United via Getty Images

Of course, its not just Andy suffering with an ankle injury at the moment. José Fonte underwent ankle surgery in December and appears to be making progress in terms of recovery.

Edimilson Fernandes was another who needed an ankle operation in December and he too will be going through the appropriate stages of rehab as we speak.

James Collins was also out of action for several weeks with an ankle injury not too long ago and then his return from that was complicated by a hamstring problem; while Reece Oxford injured his ankle by kicking the ground in training - a common enough occurrence.

The main worry is now that Andy might soon join both José and Edimilson in having surgery; and by all accounts this is something that the West Ham medical team led by Gary Lewin will be addressing during the course of the next few days.

So its one thing after another. Just when everyone was saying that David Moyes won't have any new injuries to worry about before Bournemouth visit the London Stadium comes the bad news about Andy.

It just goes to show how in football things can change at a moment's notice!