Arsene Wenger has confirmed that his skipper Cesc Fabregas sustained a hamstring injury in tonight’s 1-0 win over Stoke. The Arsenal boss has stated that Fabregas will be assessed on Thursday, prior to Sunday’s Carling Cup Final with Birmingham.
The fear is that Fabregas has suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury, sustained back in November that kept him sidelined for a number of weeks. Wenger had this to say in his post-match comments…
“It is of course a concern that he is injured but it can happen unfortunately. He was very upset, I am as well, but it is not his fault and it is not my fault, it is part of sport. It’s strange that it happened early in the game but we have to face it.”
Theo Walcott is also a major worry for Wenger. The flying winger was stretchered from the field on 71 minutes tonight. Wenger has confirmed that Walcott has suffered an ankle strain and has already ruled him out of Sunday’s final.
Looking beyond Sunday, Fantasy Managers need to consider the likelihood that Fabregas will play a part in Arsenal’s next league game against Sunderland at the Emirates. That match falls just three days before the second leg of the Champions League tie with Barcelona. It therefore seems very unlikely that Fabregas will be risked against the Black Cats given the apparent fragility of the Arsenal’s skipper’s hamstrings.
With Robin Van Persie also nursing a hamstring problem, there’s every chance that Arsenal could go into the Sunderland fixture without arguably their two key attacking players. Wenger has confirmed that Van Persie’s fitness will be assessed on Friday ahead of Sunday’s final.
Fantasy Managers currently sitting on Fabregas and/or Van Persie are faced with a blank fixture in the forthcoming gameweek and must now make a decision whether to risk benching and holding the Arsenal pair, with the hope that they will play some part in gameweek 29.
Right now we’re dealing only in pure speculation but, it has to be said, the chances of Fabregas and possibly Van Persie facing Sunderland, look fairly remote.
We await more information from Mr Wenger.
