Both Manchester United and Arsenal lost pivotal players to injury this week during their Champions League quarterfinal clashes.
Wayne Rooney crutched his way out of the Allianz Arena after United’s 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich on Tuesday. The England star twisted his ankle at the end of the match and had to be helped off the pitch by United’s medical staff. He later left the stadium with a protective boot on his foot.
The big fear was that he broke his ankle, but worry not, England supporters – a scan revealed that there was no fracture. But there was “minor ligament damage” according to the club, which will keep Rooney out for a few weeks.
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed during a Friday press conference that Rooney will be sidelined for two to three weeks – adding that “the nation can stop praying!” Rooney is ruled out of the six-pointer against Chelsea this weekend, as well as United’s following few fixtures, including the second leg against Bayern Munich next week. With Rooney on the sidelines, Sir Alex Ferguson will be looking to Dimitar Berbatov and possibly 18-year-old Federico Macheda to provide the fireworks up front, though filling Rooney’s shoes is no easy task.
Arsenal had even worse news after their enthralling showdown with defending champs Barcelona. Captain Cesc Fabregas suffered a cracked fibula in his right leg and will now be out for around six weeks. The injury came when he was fouled by Barcelona captain Carles Puyol late in the match, which resulted in a penalty for Arsenal and a red card for Puyol. Fabregas kept his nerve and scored the penalty to level the tie at 2-2, but he was visibly struggling to run and walk afterward.
Fabregas is now essentially ruled out for the rest of the Premier League season, and he faces a fight to get fit in time to make Spain’s provisional World Cup squad, which will be announced by May 12th.
Despite Arsenal’s heroic comeback from 2-0 down, their squad took some big hits that will really stretch manager Arsene Wenger’s resources for the remainder of the season.
Adding to the loss of Fabregas, Andrei Arshavin and William Gallas suffered calf strains during the match, and both players are expected to be out for about three weeks. Defender Gael Clichy picked up a back injury and midfielder Denilson is struggling with a groin problem, so they could potentially be out for a week or so as well. Tackle on the already injured Aaron Ramsey, and Arsenal have a huge chunk of talent on the treatment table (sorry Arsenal fans, this is no April Fools’ joke). Wenger probably summed it up the best on the club website: “At the moment, we are like an army who have come back from a big battle.”
The Gunners are still very much in the title race, though, sitting in third place with a showdown between the top two coming this weekend. Injuries could yet again derail their season, but with Wayne Rooney facing a spell on the sidelines for United and Chelsea facing their own fitness problems, the title race could come down to whichever squad can get healthy.
Make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter to get the latest breaking news and analysis!
