Carroll No Closer to Return

Andy Carroll heads to the Arctic to see Swedish injury specialist | Football | guardian.co.uk

The Newcastle United striker Andy Carroll is to fly to Sweden tomorrow to consult a specialist over his troublesome thigh injury.

The 22-year-old, whose 11 goals this season fuelled Newcastle's solid first half of the season, has missed the last five games with a tear in the muscle, but was taken on the club's training break to Portugal.

The Newcastle manager, Alan Pardew, had hoped to have him back in action for the Premier League trip to Fulham on 2 February, but the club are now to seek the help of a renowned Swedish specialist in an effort to get to the bottom of the problem.

"We brought him to Portugal to start running and the disappointing news is that he hasn't," said Pardew.

Bad news for one of the bright lights of the first half of the season. In other Magpie news, the article concludes:

There are also concerns over midfielder Dan Gosling, who has suffered a reaction to his return to action from a long-term knee injury as a substitute at Sunderland, amid suggestions he may need exploratory surgery to assess the problem.