Carroll pulls out of England squad
Andy Carroll will not feature for England next week
Andy Carroll has pulled out of England's opening World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine.
The West Ham loan signing suffered a hamstring injury during an impressive debut in his side's 3-0 win over Fulham on Saturday afternoon.
Manager Sam Allardyce said after the game it was unlikely Carroll would be able to join up with the England squad and he FA have confirmed that, although no decision will be made about replacements until after Sunday's three Barclays Premier League games have been played.
"West Ham United forward Andy Carroll has withdrawn from the England squad to face Moldova and Ukraine," said the FA in a statement. "After picking up an injury in the match against Fulham, Carroll will not be part of the squad for England's opening FIFA World Cup qualifying matches next week.
"Any decision on whether to call additional players into the squad will not be made until after the three fixtures on Sunday have been completed."
Roy Hodgson's decision to wait until Sunday before deciding upon replacements is a wise one given the potential for further withdrawals.
However, it is clear England have a striking problem to overcome.
Main man Wayne Rooney had already been ruled out with a gashed thigh, whilst Ashley Young, who has done well in the 'number 10' role in the past also misses the double-header with a knee injury.
Presently, Danny Welbeck, Jermain Defoe and Daniel Sturridge are the only three remaining strikers.
The obvious choice to replace them would be Aston Villa's Darren Bent, who many thought would have been included in Thursday's squad anyway.
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Everyone is having a go at Eie which is fair enough he is not the most pleasant on here for sure, but he has got a point. Liverpool have no recognised goal scorers in their team. Suarez gets involved in the game and makes just as much as he would score and Borini is unproven in th premier league still. Liverpool need many goals from midfield but you have not got goalscoring midfielders. It's an issue with your team.
Carroll is a good player and he showed that yesterday, if you have him in the right system then he causes damage. For England we have a bit of a problem up top, I hope Bent doesn't get the call up but there is a shortage of top English strikers.
Well he certainly had ALL the pundits drooling. Most saying he terrified defences and West Ham players gelled and it lifted them 20%. - Like Gassa used to.
He did at Mewcastle. Needed better service with England and certainly Daglish hadn't an Iota how to play him.
Only ones that know better are these one finger P.c. pundits.
I just wonder how 90% of the managers in Europe can't realise he is rubbish. Beats me!
BR has other playing structure team wise and he didn't fit into his way of playing, like Aquinlina. Think it will be interesting how Liverpool move forward from here. Which tey certainly will.
