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Wenger confirms injury blow as star ruled out for 4 weeks
Petr Cech has been ruled out for four weeks and won’t return until after the upcoming international break, Arsene Wenger has confirmed today.
Cech suffered a calf injury during the second half of our disgraceful 2-1 defeat to Swansea last week and made the problem worst as he tried to run back to his own goal having gone up for a late corner.
The initial diagnosis was that the 33-year-old would be out for 3-4 weeks and the boss has now said that although scan results were more positive than expected, Cech is still expected to be out for four weeks.
With our final game in March coming on the 19th with a trip to Everton, it means Cech won’t return until after the international break when we host Watford at the Emirates on Arpil 2nd.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of tomorrow night’s FA Cup replay at Hull, Wenger told Arsenal.com:
Petr’s scans were better than expected, but it will still be four weeks for him. So after the international break.
I was hoping the injury wasn’t as bad as first feared but unfortunately Cech is now set to miss another four games including tomorrow’s FA Cup clash at Hull, Premier League games with West Brom and Everton, and our Champions League clash with Barcelona.
It’s a big blow as Cech has been outstanding since joining the club from Chelsea last summer, but to be fair David Ospina was excellent against Spurs at the weekend so hopefully he can do a job over the next month.
And when you think about it, Ospina would have started against Hull anyway and we’re already out of the Champions League, so Cech’s only really going to be missing two important league games, one of which is a very winnable home match.