Cesc Fabregas is out of Tuesday’s Champions League tie with Porto with the hamstring injury sustained at the weekend.

Arsene Wenger had been undecided on whether to gamble on the fitness of his skipper Cesc Fabregas for tomorrow night’s tie but it appears the decision has been made for him.

Fabregas limped off with another hamstring problem on 39 minutes after scoring Arsenal’s opener in Saturday’s win over Burnley. He has previously missed a number of games with a similar complaint and Wenger has already gambled on his fitness once this season, with Fabregas suffering a recurrance of a hamstring following is introduction in the win over Villa back in December. This time it seems, Wenger wasn’t prepared to take a risk…

“Cesc is ruled out for tomorrow’s game…He has a hamstring problem and we could not even take a gamble with him…I was hoping [he would recover] after the game because we were cautious with him. He was not adamant about coming out of the team but still he has damaged his hamstring and we cannot take a gamble on him”.

The news is welcome in fantasy terms but the concern now will be that we are facing up to another spell of absence for Fabregas. The Spaniard is owned by over a million Fantasy Premeir League managers and, with Arsenal’s kind run of fixtures from now until the end of the season, his fitness and availability should guarantee continued returns.

Arsenal face a trip to Hull at the weekend but he will likely remain an injury doubt for that one, although the fact that the player himself wanted to be included tomorrow night perhaps hints that he has suffered a minor setback. Fabregas is reportedly due to have scans on the hamstring later today – we should know more very soon.