Wenger hampered by player injuries
Arsenal midfielder Edu was undergoing a fitness test today to decide his chances of returning for his side’s Champions League second leg tie against Bayern Munich next week.
Edu suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury when he started the first leg of the last-16 clash in Munich 10 days ago and was therefore ruled out of today’s Premiership game against Portsmouth.
However, Arsene Wenger has not yet given up hope that the Brazilian international could return to bolster his midfield in the rematch – with Arsenal needing to turn around a 3-1 deficit.
The Arsenal boss revealed: “Edu has been progressing well in training. He is still too short to face Portsmouth but he will have a big fitness test on Saturday morning.
“At the moment, you could toss a coin to find out the result.
“If he comes through the test, I will consider him but I will still have to make a decision – can he come back in the game? You can’t reproduce the intensity of a Champions League game.”
Wenger revealed that another central midfielder, Gilberto Silva, would be out for another four weeks with the back injury that has plagued him this season.
Robert Pires is making good progress from the ankle injury sustained at Southampton last weekend and will start jogging again on Monday, but will still miss next Wednesday’s game against Bayern.
Arsenal’s injury list also includes Sol Campbell, who is now rated as a major doubt for England’s World Cup qualifiers against Northern Ireland and Azerbaijan later this month, and Justin Hoyte.
On Campbell’s fitness, Wenger revealed: “Sol has still not been out on the training pitch yet. It will be very close for the England games.
“I feel he will be out for another two to three weeks. He should come out and run next Wednesday, so he could just be available for England, although he would have played one game maximum by then.”
Dennis Bergkamp and Jose Antonio Reyes, who were both missing today’s game through suspension, will at least be available for European duty as Arsenal try to reach the quarter-finals.
