West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce has claimed that a fresh Andy Carroll could be an important member of England's World Cup squad this summer.

Allardyce believes that Roy Hodgson would be wise to include Carroll in his squad for the tournament in Brazil despite seeing the striker restricted to six appearances this season due to injury.

"The good thing from Roy's point of view is he won't have a fatigued player if he picks him," the Hammers manager told journalists.

"He'll have an exceptionally fresh player that is going to be very eager and enthusiastic about going to the World Cup after having missed most of this season.

"Lots of players are going to suffer a type of fatigue. Andy won't - he will be the reverse of that. Andy will be so fresh and ready to go unlike some of those players."

Carroll has not played for England since the win over San Marino in October 2012.