Uh Oh (UPDATE: Broken Leg, 2 to 3 months)

By: Martin | July 21st, 2009

Just saw this on the wire. Can’t 100% vouch for its legitimacy, but here it is:

French publications L’Equipe and France Football are reporting that Arsenal midfielder Samir Nasri has been taken to hospital in Austria following an injury sustained while training on the Gunners’ pre-season tour of the country.

The 22-year-old was transported by two members of staff, reportedly crying in pain, to the regional hospital in Hartberg. The nature of his injury is yet to be determined.

Uh Oh. Could be something, could be nothing. But generally speaking, it has to be pretty serious for a player to get taken to the hospital, given that the Arsenal training staff is right there on the scene to deal with typical football injuries. And crying out in pain doesn’t exactly sound great, either.

UPDATE: Official site confirms rumor. Nasri will miss two to three months, which will put him back in action sometime in September or October. And a broken leg is one of those things that pretty much completely keeps you out of action, so you’d have to assume it will take him several weeks to get match fit after that.

At least it wasn’t a defender…if Rosicky stays healthy and plays well, this will hurt less.

I would point out that this another incident in a long line of Nasri injuries, but: (a) last time I noted that, several commenters accused me of being racist; and (b) more importantly, this isn’t the kind of niggly little injury that keeps you out for a week or two, it’s a broken leg, which would have happened to absolutely anyone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It just sucks all the way around–Nasri’s a really likeable player who’s got a lot of skill and moxie and goes all out for the team. He really was one of the few bright spots for the squad last season. Here’s hoping he makes a safe and speedy recovery to action.

In the near term, this definitely narrows Wenger’s options on the left wing. With Nasri now out, and Rosicky the ultimate question mark, it seems like we’ll be seeing Arshavin start the season on the left. Vela and van Persie saw some action on the left season, but it was pretty clear to me and everyone else that they weren’t entirely comfortable there. Diaby also played on the left once or twice, but he shouldn’t be considered a viable option because he’s very, very bad at playing football.

Well, what can you say? It’s a few days after our first friendly, and we Arsenal fans are already having our hopes dashed by injuries–football season really is here again…

Some Related Stories:

Category: Arsenal News, Injury Report, Samir Nasri

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Homey

I'll ditto Ryan's comments.
RyanJ

How will we endup like Leeds? Man U, Chelsea, and other clubs spend big to make themselves competitive. Why can't we. We've been worried about our debt since we built Emirates. If we want to decrease our debt we need to tap into other resources. Arsenal is a HUGE club and should market itself as such. We should be competing/ playing in some far east nation or in the Americas to gain much needed funds to bolster our squad/ decrease our debt. There's no fucking excuse for us to be playing nobodies. I watched Chelsea and Inter last night and to be honest Chelsea looked great against a great team. Oh i know it was a friendly game but still it says alot about this Chelsea team, they're solid. I compare Arsenal to Chelsea because that's one of our competition. Wegner and our Management need to stop fooling themselves and stop the squabble for shares and focus on improving our team. Three transfers in two season for an underachieving team is simply not good enough. That doesn't cut it.
Zito

Pulling out all the stops can be helpful but can we really afford to end up like Leeds UTD?
Homey

Regarding an earlier post, I don't think we can keep blaming injuries for our lack of winning. Every team goes through injuries. I think the difference is that Arsenal don't have a lot of quality depth. For instance, last year we got down to playing Silvestre a lot, and he was rubbish. Other top teams seem to have better backup players to plug in. With this Nasri thing just coming up, we now see problems on the wing, when that wasn't even an area of concern a week ago.
RyanJ

These problems may be amplified as you say, but they are indeed legitimate concerns. It does suck that our management gives our manager pennies, compared to other teams, and expect him to perform miracles. I have been an Arsenal fan since the days of Ian Wright and have followed my team whole heartedly. But we need trophies, we deserve trophies, we have always been a winning, championship team. We should pull out all stops to be as competitive as we can this season and I don't think we've done that yet.
Zito

Last year, don't forget they challenged for the title, 2009 was supposed to be their year and as soon as they failed, these "problems" have been amplified more than I think is needed. Anyways I do think they need someone to help Cesc, and it sucks how management makes Wenger take the heat when they're the ones taking the money from him.
RyanJ

I agree to a certain extent zito, but when you have a positions thats been lacking for years there needs to be inprovements. Namely CM. We have quantity in that position but not quality. Song, Diaby, nor Denilson have quite developed into the players we all expected them to be. Therefore, why not purchase and solid proven player for that position. Yes we have the injury bug, but we can't continue to begin our seasons less than 100% nor can we keep hoping that it all comes together or no ones gets injured. Thats not the way top clubs should function. I have never doubted Arsenal but I have questioned some of the decisions that our managment has made. Lets pray that it comes together for us.
Zito

Lol just my opinion
Zito

The thing is, fans usually comment on what they want and this is usually calculated by what every other team has. This is one reason that I have never really bought into the whole "Arsenal need this or that". They don't "need" anyone per say, the thing they need most is to somehow defeat their greatest enemy, injuries. Arsenal play a brand of football that is mesmerizing and hard to stop, the free flowing movement and passes is orgasmic but that only happens when every player is on song(no pun intended). Last year they could not do it and thus they didn't have possession as they usually do, this put a lot of pressure on the defence which was limited by guess what? injuries. If yo think about it, all Barca does is play a slower version of Arsenal's game, where Arsenal plays fast paced, short passing game with quick positioning, Barcelona play slow, short passing which allow players to have time to get in position. Arsenal's style demand that you know where the ball is going next and where your teammate will be the instant that you touch the ball. This was the downfall because when you have reserves and bench players playing full time because of injuries, it ruins the the chemistry, thus the team work and ultimately leads to a 4th place finish and a shitload of doubters.
RyanJ

We have $25 mil, we need to do something sensible and do it fast. I'm tired of all this mediocrity from our management. We sell our really good players but then we hold on to our poor players, players like Eboue, Song and others. It think for a big club we've made some really poor decisions and dropped the ball. We've uttered over and over that we need a CM. If we the fans can see this then why not our management. We need a few solid defenders. We've talked about this season after season, but yet we see no buying for these positions. Many good french players, i.e sagna, are being sold on he cheap why not get them. Please don't let us down in the transfer market this season Arsenal.
third eye

Arsenal will play agaisnt Sc Columbia today!
Gigi

Man it really sucks... whoever did it (specially if it was senderos) i expect a public apology to say the least! Man injuries just don't let us alone!!!
matt

that sucks. guy is fun to watch.
Homey

Well, a couple of you disagreed when I suggested a week ago that we try to get Hleb back for cheap if possible. I think that would sound good right about now. But whatever the case, we need a couple more players. If we get a solid striker, then Arshavin can hold down the left wing spot. But without someone else up front, then he plays up top and it's someone like Diaby on the left. And nobody wants that.
evaldo

other websites are saying it was diaby. in either case, fuck off and leave the club. no one likes you and you stink
evaldo

FUCKING SENDEROS! now his good for nothing ass will definitely get sold. this is bad...

wenger better sign somebody (cdm,striker, or whatever) with the ade $
paul

yeah 2 -3 months apparentley broken leg senderos in with a late tackle did it
Gooner

well it is official according to arsenal's official website, and he will be out for 2 to 3 months!

by the way anyway got the highlights for the lincoln match?
thanks
Vasey

Talksport (who are generally quite good) are saying broken leg!
My positive outlook is, as is the norm in British summertime, now looking quite gloomy...
Zito

These damn injuries have to stop