OPINION
Nothing has ever been straight forward in the career of Newcastle United forward Andy Carroll.
The England international has struggled to consistently maintain his fitness and that has definitely affected him through the years at each club he has played for.
West Ham United made the decision to release Carroll in the summer after he had suffered a nightmare last season. The 30-year-old missed 246 days of action, adding up to 24 games in the Premier League after undergoing two ankle surgeries [Source: Transfermarkt].
Carroll returned to the Magpies after leaving London and is slowly being reintroduced into the action by Steve Bruce, with a number of recent appearances off the bench this season.
The boyhood Newcastle fan has yet to open his account in this campaign, but Bruce admitted on Friday that he is happy with the progress being made by his summer signing.
“Andy’s doing great, touch wood,” he said in his pre-match press conference.
“He came on at Leicester and played another half an hour against Man United and there’s been no reaction to that. He’s trained all week again. So with Andy, it’s a case of so far, so good.”
Newcastle haven’t exactly been free-scoring this season, and record signing Joelinton has not hit the ground running in front of goal.
The Brazilian has only scored once in the 1-0 victory against Tottenham earlier in the season but has failed to do much more than that in games alongside Miguel Almiron.
The South American duo have not had the risk of potentially being dropped by Bruce as of yet, with no other forward being fully fit to replace them.
Now that Carroll is progressing and doing great in his rehabilitation, the time could be coming for Bruce to make the decision to axe Joelinton.
With the positive injury update on the 30-year-old, Joelinton could certainly find himself on the bench in the future should he not start finding the back of the net.
