Handy Andy: Carroll scored against Chelsea in the FA Cup final

'I feel when I came to Liverpool I changed my lifestyle and everything about it and settled down,' he said. 'I have my girlfriend with me at home and I love it here.

'I don't go out at all. I know what people say is not true, my family knows it's not true and the club knows it's not true so that is all that matters. All I do now is sit in the house with my girlfriend, chill out and watch movies. I'm on the Xbox or I'll watch TV.'

And now we are starting to see the rewards, the  23-year-old looking fitter, faster, stronger and more confident than at any time since he signed for Liverpool in January 2011.

Johnson thinks Carroll may have forced his way into the 23-man squad Hodgson will take to Poland and Ukraine, and he has a point. Rooney will go and so will Danny Welbeck, probably as the player who replaces his suspended Manchester United colleague in the first two games.

But after that there are two places up for grabs and, as the kind of physically imposing target man Hodgson likes having around, Carroll has to be in with a serious chance of securing one of those four places.

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