
The striker scored with a spectacular, acrobatic scissor kick during last week's 3-0 win over Crystal Palace.
But at the end of the match he was feeling a problem with his neck and had to sit out training earlier this week.
West Ham boss Slaven Bilic was surprised by the unusual diagnosis, but is still hopeful his frontman will be fit for the trip to Teesside.
REUTERS
Andy Carroll suffered whiplash during West Ham's game with Crystal Palace
REUTERS
Andy Carroll scored the best goal of his career against Crystal Palace
REUTERS
Andy Carroll scored just his third goal of the season against Palace
GETTY
Andy Carroll scored the second goal as West Ham beat Crystal Palace at the London Stadium
"He's got a whiplash injury, that's what I was told from the physios," said Bilic.
"Then I went to the dictionary basically to find out what that is. It was a sore neck, but hopefully he will be okay.
"It was at the end of the game, I don't know how he got it.
GETTY
Slaven Bilic is still hopeful his striker will be fit to face Middlesbrough
Dimitri Payet pictured training with West Ham under-23s
Wed, January 18, 2017
Dimitri Payet has been pictured training with West Ham under-23s
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Dimitri Payet has been pictured training with West Ham under-23s
"He then trained Tuesday very hard, he was brilliant in training, but then reported some neck pain. But as I say, hopefully he will be okay.
"We have a few with knocks – Winston Reid has a painful one and Sam Byram has a knock on his knee, it was swollen and he missed training on Wednesday.
"Also Sofiane Feghouli missed training on Wednesday because of a minor problem with his Achilles.
"But I'm very optimistic that all of them are going to be fit for the game on Saturday."
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