West Ham striker Andy Carroll was grateful to manager Slaven Bilic for his support in the summer.

Carroll is now fully recovered from a series of injuries.

"The manager's words [in the summer] were 'we can't be having you 60 per cent, we need you 100 per cent — take your time'. Take as long as I need, and that's exactly what I've done," Carroll told the Daily Mail.

"We're not going to force it.

"The knee was supposed to be six months and ended up being eight... for me mentally, if someone is saying six and then it's eight — that's an extra two months and it hurts.

"I took that time, and maybe I should've done that in the past. I had to listen.

"I haven't been thrown back in as I have been in the past, training every day. Now I'm taking a day out of training in the gym doing stability work and keeping up the work that has got me back fit."