Carroll poised for European debut

Liverpool's record signing Andy Carroll is set for his European debut in Thursday's Europa League last-16 first leg against Braga in Portugal.

The £35million January transfer from Newcastle made his first appearance for the club as a substitute in Sunday's 3-1 win over Manchester United, having been sidelined for more than two months with a thigh problem.

He will continue his gradual introduction to the first team with a likely place on the bench on Thursday.

Head of sports medicine and sports science Dr Peter Brukner said the club were pleased with how the player's recuperation had gone since joining from Newcastle on transfer deadline day in January.


 

"It's been a long process rehabilitating him - about eight or nine weeks - but we are happy with the result," said the Australian.

"We've seen steady improvement over that time; he's much stronger in that tendon and in general as well.

"We still need to keep working with him and we want to build his training and playing load up to the level required.

"He'll play some more minutes against Braga and hopefully he'll be involved more and more with each game.

"Overall, we are really happy with his progress."

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