John Terry suffers a training ground Achilles scare but is expected to be fit for Thursday’s trip to Spurs. Jamie O’Hara is still unavailable for Wolves ahead of tomorrow night’s home game with Norwich, while the injuries continue to mount up for Steve Kean:
Wolves confirmed earlier today that both Jamie O’Hara and Dave Edwards are out of tomorrow night’s game against Norwich. The pair missed the weekend defeat at home to Stoke but O’Hara had initially been expected to be fit for the Canaries game. Given he has averaged over 9 points per game in his last three Molineux fixtures, his loss is a significant blow for both Mick McCarthy and Fantasy managers alike.
The injuries continue to rack up for Blackburn’s under-fire boss Steve Kean. Gael Givet is set for a spell on the sidelines, with the club announcing he is to undergo minor heart surgery, though Kean doesn’t expect his length of absence to be too prolonged. Scott Dann is also out for an estimated period of 6 weeks– the centre-half injured his groin in the process of scoring his side’s equaliser against West Brom and is to undergo an operation. Kean does, however, expect Junior Hoilett to be available for tomorrow night’s visit of Bolton.
Chelsea’s open training session today saw John Terry helped off the pitch after suffering what appeared to be an ankle problem. The club physios have since said he tweaked his Achilles but the Blues skipper is expected to be fit for Thursday’s trip to Spurs. David Luiz and Ramires both sat out training, with the pair having missed the visit to Wigan at the weekend.
The omission of Darren Bent from Aston Villa’s first XI against Liverpool yesterday came as a surprise to many. Bent’s subsequent Christmas shopping trip as his side went down 2-0 raised more than a few eyebrows, though, and led Alex McLeish to insist there has been no falling out between the pair. With Gabby Agbonlahor also out due to suspension, Villa were forced to field Emile Heskey and Nathan Delfouneso up front and never threatened Kenny Dalglish’s side throughout the ninety minutes. Big Eck explained post-match:
Darren had a scan during the week. It confirmed he had a grade one injury, I didn’t reveal it because I wanted to keep things back from Liverpool. You have to understand that. I didn’t want Liverpool knowing our starting line-up. Darren was injured. Bent was in for two hours’ treatment this morning and was told to rest at home. He went home and watched the game but near the end he went out to collect some Christmas presents. End of story.
Johan Djourou limped out of Arsenal’s game against Manchester City yesterday with a groin injury. Djourou was replaced after 46 minutes by Ignasi Miquel and with Arsene Wenger estimating the Swiss international is likely to be out for 21 days, it’s fair to say the Gunners have something of a defensive dilemma right now. Kieran Gibbs has an outside chance of making it for the game at Aston Villa but barring that, Miquel could well continue at left-back, with Thomas Vermaelen moving back to the centre and Laurent Koscielny out right.
