With a sudden injury crisis hitting Arsenal in the central midfield area like an unexpected punch in the stomach, I was hoping that Arsene Wenger would be able to call on our France international Abou Diaby, as the long legged Frenchman continues on the road to resurrecting his Arsenal career.
But in the latest team news and injury update reported by Arsenal.com, the boss poured cold water on that, at least for the Champions League clash with Galatasaray this evening anyway. It is not such a disaster, I suppose, as Jack Wilshere has passed a fitness test and is available to start alongside Mathieu Flamini in the centre.
But I would have expected Diaby to at least be fit enough to make the squad, as it has been over a week since he completed over an hour in a high energy encounter with Southampton. And Diaby has already played a full 90 minutes for the reserves this season, so the club are being perfectly careful with him in order to avoid an injury recurrence. It certainly doesn’t sound like he has a problem from the manager’s words.
Wenger said, “I left Abou Diaby out as well because he’s not completely there yet.”
We know that Diaby will not be playing every game even if he is classed as fully fit, as recovery time seems to be one of the major causes of his problems, but Wenger does rate him highly and is perhaps going to cherry pick games for him. I wonder if the Premier League trip to Chelsea on Sunday could be one of them, because that is where his experience, tackling and all round ability could come to the fore. What do you think Gooners?