Arsenal News: Diaby injured, Walcott out with virus

Abou Diaby’s injury curse lifted for all of four professional matches before it has struck once again, leaving the Frenchman out of his countries World Cup qualifier against Belarus. England have their own injury crisis with Theo Walcott the latest to withdraw ahead of their match against Ukraine.

Arsenal’s powerful midfielder Diaby seemed like a player reborn as he starred in the Gunners impressive 2-0 win over Liverpool on the weekend, and continued his fine run of form with the winner for France in their opening World Cup Qualifying match against Finland. But it seems he will be sidelined for their next match on Tuesday with a muscular concern.

Les Bleus boss Didier Deschamps revealed:
Diaby took a bad shot and he has muscular discomfort. He is not free in his movements.

While the seriousness of the injury is not yet known, Gooners are praying it is nothing to severe with a tough fixture against Southampton this weekend. The injury would probably have been the result of too many fixtures in a short space of time for the 26-year-old that spent pretty much the majority of last season on the treatment table. Let us hope the withdrawal is precautionary, and the ‘muscular discomfort’ is nothing too serious.

Theo Walcott has been sent home from England duty after picking up a virus resulting in the winger becoming ‘violently ill’ overnight. This will essentially rule out the 23-year-old for this weekend’s fixture for Arsenal against his former club.

The Three Lions manager Roy Hodgson said:

Theo has picked up some sort of virus or bug because he was quite violently ill last night.

So not looking too good on the injury front for the Gunners with two key first team players ruled out for their second Qualifier, however there is some positive news to report with Olivier Giroud cleared of his niggling injury meaning he could take part in France’s match against Belarus.

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We will keep you updated on the latest progressions in relation to Diaby’s injury and any other international duty news. Feel free to comment below or in allArsenal’s injury thread in the forum.