It appears that all of the concern and consternation coming from the Arsenal camp over the injury to the Chile international Alexis Sanchez may have been nothing more than a storm in a teacup, with a bit of thigh bandaging thrown in for good measure.
It looks like the Arsenal striker will be starting for his national side when they take on Uruguay in a World Cup qualifying match tonight, as the Chilean medical team have passed him fit. Hopefully there is no reason to worry as the coach of Chile has moved to allay the fears of Arsenal fans that they may be taking a risk by doing so.
As reported by The Guardian their manager Juan Antonio Pizzi insisted that they take the fitness of the players seriously as well as their importance to the various clubs. And if you were concerned that Pizzi may just be saying what we want to hear I think the little bit of news about Alexis having trained throughout the current international break despite being ruled out of their game last week makes all the talk about a possible long spell on the sidelines seem a bit daft.
The Chile boss said, “Sánchez was not ready for the game in Colombia, but we knew the injury was a small one and we could have him for this match. The three of them [Sánchez, Vidal and Bravo] are available to me for tomorrow.
“It’s not that he hasn’t trained, he’s trained every day, even when we were in Colombia he did a different kind of work. Yesterday he took part in full training.”
“At no time have we received pressure from any club. My stance is that I will never use a player who is not fit or capable of playing,” he said in quotes reported by the South American media.
“All of the clubs can remain calm, we are very respectful of our players. The health of our players is paramount, we will never force any player who has not got the medical all-clear.”
So just what was all the fuss from Wenger all about? Mind games ahead of Man United maybe?
Bob.
Just what i wanted to read