The 36-year-old former Newcastle United and Liverpool forward - who now plays for French side Bordeaux - isn't rushing to hang up his boots, but he could take a similar path to former Magpies teammate Kevin Nolan after he became manager at Northampton Town.

He told Sky Sports News: "I could. When he got that job, I was talking to him and I thought it was going to be the phone call to say, 'Come on, are you coming?'

"It wasn't but you never know. It's a few years away, hopefully anyway, and let's see if there's coaching, management in that.

"But right now, I'm just focused on playing football and enjoying myself."

For now, Carroll wants to keep on playing into his 40s, and he's glad to still be involved despite injury problems in the past.

He said: "I've had a lot of injuries and I think it's sad for me to think of all the games I've missed, and all the comments I've had about, 'you want to be injured', or, 'you want to do this'.

"Everyone that knows me knows that's not the case at all, I've just wanted to play football, and now I can get a chance at 36 to play and enjoy it, it's great."

With former Ligue 1 winners Bordeaux, he also has a chance to be involved in something special as the club, who gave up their professional team status and dropped to the fourth tier due to bankruptcy last summer.

He added: "I think it's something that gave me a little bit of buzz. I wanted to be a part of something that could be great."

Carroll is still keeping a keen eye on Newcastle too, and he was at Wembley for his boyhood club's win over Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final - which marked the team's first domestic trophy in 70 years:

he said: "Eddie [Howe]has really impressed me. Obviously what he's done at other clubs as well, Bournemouth, I just think he's an unbelievable coach and when I speak to the lads at the club, they've all said amazing things about him and you can see it, you can see that every player wants to play for him."