Ray of Hope as Djourou Avoids Surgery; 15 Gunners Called Up for International Duty

A couple of quick stories worth talking about today:

First, and most importantly, the club has confirmed that while Djourou will be out at least 4 weeks, he will not need surgery. The brief statement from the club also says that he will return to training in “about a month.” It’s probably wishing for too much, but if he comes back in 4 weeks, gets a week of training, and is then ready to return to match fitness, that would put him in line for a return against Manchester United on May 1. So that would be good, obviously. And it is an upper body injury, so while he will probably need to keep the shoulder largely immobilized, hopefully this injury will not prevent him from keeping his overall fitness up.

Elsewhere, Szczesny is positive despite his injury, and isn’t just sitting around. He says that while he can’t do normal goalkeeper training because his finger is in a split and he can’t use his hands, he is undergoing a lot of lower body training, is keeping his fitness up, and is working hard on his distribution, which I think most of us know is an area of his game that could really use some work. While I’m sure it must be disappointed, it’s encouraging that he’s staying busy, working hard, and dedicating himself to improving. Certainly bodes well for his future.

The final news is in internationals, which you all know I simply adore. 15 Arsenal players have gotten the call-up for their national sides for the upcoming international break:

Andrey Arshavin Russia March 26 — at Armenia; March 29 — at Qatar
Nicklas Bendtner Denmark March 26 — at Norway; March 29 — at Slovakia
Marouane Chamakh Morocco March 27 — at Algeria; March 30 — vs. Botswana
Gael Clichy France March 25 — at Luxembourg; March 29 — vs. Croatia
Emmanuel Eboue Ivory Coast March 26 — vs. Benin
Kieran Gibbs England U21s March 24 — at Denmark; March 28 — vs. Iceland
Laurent Koscielny France March 25 — at Luxembourg; March 29 — vs. Croatia
Henri Lansbury England U21s March 24 — at Denmark; March 28 — vs. Iceland
Samir Nasri France March 25 — at Luxembourg; March 29 — vs. Croatia
Aaron Ramsey Wales March 26 — vs. England; March 29 — vs. Scotland
Tomas Rosicky Czech Republic March 25 — at Spain; March 29 — vs. Liechtenstein
Bacary Sagna France March 25 — at Luxembourg; March 29 — vs. Croatia
Robin van Persie Netherlands March 25 — at Hungary; March 29 — vs. Hungary
Carlos Vela Mexico March 26 — vs. Paraguay; March 29 — vs. Venezuela
Jack Wilshere England March 26 — at Wales; March 29 — vs. Ghana

So there’s that, then. Worrisome because that list basically contains all of our fit, effective players, and we are certainly at a time when, given our injuries and that our title hopes are hanging by a thread, we can’t afford any more. So let’s hope everyone comes back in one piece.

That’s it for today. We’ll be back in the coming days, but as usual with these international breaks, there isn’t a great deal of news going on, so I guess we’ll have to find something else to do with our weeks. If your significant other doesn’t know any better, this would certainly be a great couple of weeks to say, “Honey, you are so lovely and kind and tolerant of me scheduling our weekend around a football team that’s prone to crapping out and making me so angry I’m hard to live with for the rest of the day — why don’t I skip the game this weekend so we can spend some quality time together?” Just a thought.

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Category: Arsenal News, Injury Report, Internationals