Untold Injury Index: injuries currently reported by the top clubs – Gameweek 26. « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

Untold Injury Index – Gameweek 26

By Dale Higginbottom

Being an Arsenal fan in the 2011/2012 season has really been a bit of a roller coaster ride. Some of the results we have been part of include the 8-2, the 4-3, the 5-3, the 7-1, recently the 4-0 defeat to AC Milan and now to that we can add the 5-2 against the Totts. It was one of those season defining games that had some of the hangover of the Sunderland and Milan defeats but hopefully also the spirit that will see us ultimately succeed in our push for a top-four, or even top-three finish. Injury levels at the moment are harsh but manageable and we should be seeing a drip-feed of players returning to the squad, helping to keep things fresh in the final quarter of the season.

For now however, let’s look at the injuries this week.

A = Ankle	K = Knee
B = Back	L = Achilles
C = Calf	M = Muscle
D = Dead Leg	N = Hip
E = Hamstring	R = Rib
F = Fatigue/Lack of Fitness	S = Shoulder
G = Groin	T = Thigh
H = Head Injury/Concussion	U = Unknown
I = Illness	Y = Hand
J = Foot	Z = Broken Leg

Arsenal Vs Tottenham (5-2)

Injuries	Arsenal (7 + 0S)	Tottenham (2 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	Santos (A,12),  Mertesacker (A,1), Squillaci (U,7)	Gallas (C,15)
Midfield	Wilshere (A,26), Diaby (M,24), Ramsey (A,2),  Coquelin (E,3)	Huddlestone (A,23)
Attack	N/A	N/A
Additional issues	Jenkinson returned to the squad and came on after 75 minutes. Koscielny and Gibbs were doubts ahead of the game but both played the whole game. Chamakh was a doubt but was on the bench and was an unused substitute.	Adebayor, Assou-Ekotto and Modric were all doubts for the game but all three started and played the whole game. Van der Vaart and Sandro returned to the squad and both came off the bench for the second half.
Suspended	N/A	N/A

Norwich Vs Man Utd (1-2)

Injuries	Norwich (4 + 0S)	Man Utd (9 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	Rudd (A)	Lindegaard (A,4)
Defence	Ayala (E), Tierney (G)	Vidic (K,19), De Laet (C,4),
Midfield	Howson (K)	Fletcher (I,14), Anderson (U,14), Cleverley (A,19), Valencia (E,5)
Attack	N/A	Owen (T,20), Rooney (I,3)
Additional issues	Whitbread and Naughton were both doubts but both started and played the whole game.	N/A
Suspended	N/A	N/A

 Chelsea Vs Bolton (3-0)

Injuries	Chelsea (2 + 0S)	Bolton (8 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	Terry (K,4), Bosingwa (M,1)	Alonso (F), Mears (Z), Riley (J)
Midfield	N/A	Gardner (K), Holden (K), Lee (Z), M.Davies (E)
Attack	N/A	K.Davies (K)
Additional issues	Torres was a doubt but started on the bench and came on after 76 mins and replacing Drogba who limped off with a knee injury.	N/A
Suspended	N/A	N/A

 Man City Vs Blackburn (3-0)

Injuries	Man City (0 + 0S)	Blackburn (2 +2S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	N/A	N/A
Midfield	N/A	Dunn (C), Grella (H)
Attack	N/A	N/A
Additional issues	Richards was a doubt for the game but started on the bench. He did not feature in the game.	N/A
Suspended	N/A	Givet, Lowe

 Top of the injury league this week is still United who have been missing key players in all positions. Arsenal are back in second with 7 players out and the majority of key players missing in midfield. Chelsea, Tottenham and City all recorded no more than 2 injuries each.

It was such a resilient performance considering the recent cup results and it’s a win that means that the gap to Tottenham is now down to seven points with twelve to play. The Totts play United on Sunday and without the new England captain, Scott Parker so, that could mean that we could be within just four points by Sunday evening. The focus is clearly now on the league position and ensuring we finish ahead of at least two of Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs and I think we all feel a bit more positive about achieving this feat now.

Around the grounds we saw United just squeeze past Norwich whilst missing some big-name players. They seem to just do enough but if they come up against a big team, I think they could come unstuck.

Chelsea eased past Bolton, who themselves have been badly hit by injuries all season. The injury balance was tipped in Chelsea’s favour so it was fairly clear that Bolton would struggle. Despite that however, we did see some brilliant flashes from the exciting, young Ryo Miyaichi, a Wilshere-esque Bolton loan spell on the cards perhaps?

Finally, Liverpool did not feature in the league this weekend but picked up defensive injuries to Johnson and Agger and City again handed in a spotless injury report card and unsurprisingly comfortably beat a poor Blackburn team.

A short break for international friendlies has been and gone and I think we came out of it unscathed (fingers crossed), despite a big scare over an injury to van Persie. A few of our rivals’ players picked up injuries, namely Gerrard, Smalling and Sturridge and whilst we wouldn’t wish an injury on anyone, anything that will help us grab a Champions League place is always welcomed.

Bizarrely we also saw a number of players (from most of the big teams, including Arsenal) have picked up odd little niggles that mean that they couldn’t feature for their national teams. International friendly time is always the time where we get this public battle for power between the clubs and the national teams and I would be surprised if the reporting of every single one of these injuries is completely truthful.

Let’s see how many of these players feature at the weekend.

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