West Ham striker Andy Carroll is a major doubt ahead of today’s lunchtime kick off against Chelsea with a knee injury.

The Hammers are desperately low on quality up front and will be praying that the Liverpool loanee can pass a late fitness test in time to face Rafa Benitez’s European Champions today.

Carroll was brought off during the second half of West Ham’s narrow 1-0 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford on Wednesday night and has not been training with the first team squad since.

"Andy Carroll has a knock on the knee which we will have to assess again later today and tomorrow to see how that is," Sam Allardyce told the Daily Mirror yesterday.

"Hopefully that will be OK because we are really thin on the ground at the moment. Every man needs to keep putting in the shift that they are doing to try and get a result at home on Saturday."