By Richard Clarke
The hamstring strain suffered by
Jose Antonio Reyes is better than first feared but he will
still miss the visit of Charlton on Saturday.
That will be the second game the Spaniard has sat out but
thankfully the injury is not serious and he should be back in 10
days.
Pascal Cygan is expected to return around the same time, he was
close to a return from his own hamstring injury before suffering a
set-back last week.
Elsewhere,
Robin van Persie (toe) and
Sol Campbell (ankle) have been back in full training for some
time but neither are likely to be risked at the weekend.
Abou Diaby (ankle) is also recovering well but is not training
yet. The two injured left backs,
Ashley Cole and
Gael Clichy, are unlikely to be seen until next month.
As ever, Arsène Wenger gave his first pre-match interview to
Arsenal TV Online on Thursday lunchtime. He gave a full briefing
about the injury situation.
"Jose Antonio Reyes missed the game at the weekend," said
the Frenchman. "But his [hamstring] strain is not as bad as we
thought. It is minor so he could be 10 days out. He is definitely
out for Saturday though.
"Sol Campbell and Robin van Persie are back in full training.
I don't know or not if they are going to be in the squad [for
Saturday] yet. They are still a bit short.
"Pascal is still out and had a little bit of a set-back. It
will be 10 days for him. Diaby is not yet [in training].
"As for Ashley Cole, he still has an inflamed ankle. I feel we
have to be patient with him. It is the same with Gael Clichy.
Ashley will be two to three weeks and Gael will be at least
that."
Arsenal TV Online subscribers will be able to see the full interview on Friday morning. In it, Arsène Wenger talks about the Liverpool game, the push in the Premiership now, the emergence of Darren Bent, the development of Theo Walcott, when he might play and the new speculation surrounding Thierry Henry.
16/1 Arsenal v Charlton: Cesc Fabregas to score the first goal
Copyright 2013 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source 16 Mar 2006
