West Ham’s Allardyce backs England boss Hodgson to recall Carroll

Sam Allardyce has encouraged Roy Hodgson to call up West Ham United striker Andy Carroll to his squad for England’s World Cup qualifiers next week.

The 23-year-old made his return from a month-long hamstring problem when he came on as a second-half substitute in the Hammers’ 2-1 victory over Queens Park Rangers on Monday night.

Carroll, who is on loan from Liverpool at Upton Park, was part of Hodgson’s squad which reached the Euro 2012 quarter-finals, and Allardyce is confident the former Magpies forward can be of service to England boss against San Marino and Poland.

“Andy needed to come on and relieve the pressure that QPR were putting on us because Carlton Cole was tiring after playing very well,” said Allardyce.

“Andy came on and started holding the ball up and we started creating more and more chances. But for Julio Cesar’s saves, we would have scored even more than we did.”

Allardyce added: “I will speak to Roy personally and give him the full lowdown on Andy’s match fitness – he is woefully short of match fitness.

“He only played twice for Liverpool, he played 68 minutes for us and now another 18 so he is short of match fitness which is delicate to deal with and I am sure Roy will deal with it in the right way.

“It will give him match fitness, if it is done sensibly but I don’t want to tell Roy how to do his job.

“I have to say we have spent a huge amount of time getting him here and because of fatigue he pulled his hamstring in the first game so we have to manage that and I think if England call him up they will manage that.

“You saw his left-foot shot, there was not a lack of confidence in that was there? I think given the service, that we have to give him, he will get stronger and stronger.”

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