West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce is confident Andy Carroll will return inside a month.
The Hammers splashed out £15million to sign Carroll permanently in June 2013 but the England striker has started only 12 Barclays Premier League matches during an injury-ridden 16 months at Upton Park.
"It'll be another two to three weeks, if he has no niggles or problems, before we talk about playing him in the team at any level," Allardyce said.
"We'll try to get him through three or four behind-closed-doors games and if that goes all right then we would hope to have him back.
"It's been a long, hard road again for Andy and one he's been too familiar with recently, sadly.
"Hopefully he'll have a major impact when he comes back again."
