There's always the risk of injury when you play professional sport — Harry Kane against Manchester City the other night is a prime example.

At one stage this season we had nine players unavailable and even though most of those are back, players such as Andriy Yarmolenko, Carlos Sanchez and Winston Reid are still out while Jack Wilshere is just coming back.

I count myself fortunate not to have missed too many matches but one West Ham team-mate who has been plagued by injuries is Andy Carroll.

It’s a real difficult one for me because it’s so hard to see a player who, every day, wants to train, to play and do his best, for the club and himself, but who has been stopped from doing that by a succession of injuries.

I saw Andy when he first came, initially on loan from Liverpool in 2012 and then permanently the following season, and I can remember the huge impact he made.

The thing about Andy is that when he plays, he gives it 100 per cent but, if he is not fully fit, he can put himself in danger. It’s horrible when I see some of the comments about him.

It’s not his fault he is injured. He’s such a big lad and his body just hasn’t allowed him to cope with the demands of playing regularly and that has severely limited his playing time. The thing in football is that you are always expected to be macho man — “I’m, all right, there’s no problem”, that sort of thing.

But the one thing you want to do is go out with the lads and play football. I’ve been really lucky, I’ve trained and played week in and week out but the odd times I’ve been injured I really missed going in to training, having some banter with the lads.

If you’re injured and you’ve been ordered to rest, you keep away because you don’t want to go to the training ground and see the rest of the lads fit and having a laugh.

Most of the challenge when you’re injured is a mental one, accepting the fact you’re not going to be playing for a while. You’re sat there on a treatment bed while everyone else is out there, having fun. If you are out for any length of time, as Andy has at times, then it’s natural to feel you’re not part of it and isolated. Robert Snodgrass, Aaron Cresswell and myself are pretty close to Andy and we’ve spent time with him. Usually he’s the sort of person who likes to mix with the lads. If he’s quiet, you know he’s not feeling that good.

We try our best to get around him and help him feel part of it but, to be fair, a lot of this season he has been training, that is until this latest ankle operation. His contract, apart from an option, is up at the end of the season and it’s not the best of situations for him. But he knows that football, as important as it is, is not the only thing which matters. He has a wife and children and they are his priority.

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Winston has been another long-term casualty but he seems to have taken it into his stride a lot more than other players I have seen.

He comes in, accepts the cards he has been dealt and gets on with his work. He has had a few setbacks but hopefully he can have a good pre-season and get back to the Winston we all know.