Henry and Fabregas out for FA CUP tie with Blackburn
Just 3 days after Sunday’s emotionally draining defeat to Chelsea in the Carling Cup final, Arsenal are preparing to face Blackburn Rovers Wednesday in the 5th round of the FA Cup.
With numerous injuries and suspensions, Arsène Wenger has confirmed that he could be without up to 10 players for the game.
“We have lots of injuries. We don’t have Adebayor (suspension), Thierry Henry (foot) and Tomas Rosicky (groin). At Cardiff on Sunday we also lost Abou Diaby through an ankle injury and Kolo Toure who was sent off. Fabregas will be rested as well.”
Also out with injuries are Justin Hoyte (hamstring), Johan Djourou (ankle), Mathieu Flamini (foot) and, of course, Robin van Persie, who’s prognosis is still anything between four and eight weeks because of the broken metatarsal he suffered against Manchester United on January 21.
So, who does Wenger have available?
“William Gallas is coming back,” he said, “so are Hleb and Ljungberg. They will be involved. Denilson will be there as well. Clichy (foot) is in the squad but I am not sure he will play.”
Update: The BBC is reporting that Theo Walcott is doubtful for the game with a shoulder problem. If that is true, then Wenger has even fewer options up front.
[...] Henry is out with an undefined foot injury. No word on when he’ll be back in action. And I also don’t have any word on Flamini, aside from multiple articles that say, “Flamini (foot).” Will they recover in time? Who the heck knows? [...]