Injury Update 08/10/09

A day behind schedule, but I'll also post today's injury news later this afternoon....

It's every Liverpool fan's worst nightmare - talismanic striker Fernando Torres limped out of a training session with Spain on Wednesday night.

But the good news is that although Torres pulled up with a groin problem, he was later able to exercise on his own in the gym. He is expected to be fit for Spain's qualifying double header so should - fingers crossed - be fine for the Reds' vital week of games against Sunderland, Lyon and Manchester United.

Also missing international training on Wednesday was Aston Villa's Richard Dunne, though Ireland are playing down the seriousness of the defender's ankle knock ahead of their game with Italy.

There's also some good news for Fulham coming out of the Ireland camp as Damien Duff is having a scan on his calf injury on Thursday or Friday and could play against Montenegro next Wednesday and be ready for the Cottagers' next Premier League game.

Over to Manchester City, and Argentina boss Diego Maradona has been raging that Pablo Zabaleta played against Aston Villa on Monday night and picked up a hamstring injury that keeps him out of their vital qualifiers.

"Someone should have travelled to England to bring them back. Argentina have two massive games and Manchester City have 100 more," said Maradona.

"Once again these things have got away from us. It upsets me a lot that we can't rely on Zabaleta playing."

City have got enough problems of their own without worring about Argentina but at least Kolo Toure has said that he will be fit to face Wigan next week.

"I am having some pains but it will be fine for me after the international break," Toure told skysports.com. "I was desperate to play for my country against Malawi because we can qualify that day there, but I could not do it.

"I would like to let City fans know we are together and I should be fine. It was a very hard kick on my Achilles, but nothing is broken there."

Nigel de Jong (ankle) and Joleon Lescott (calf) also pulled out of international duty this week but are expected to recover in time to face the Latics.

City are currently 'topping' the injury charts, with Arsenal a close second, though Arsene Wenger is hoping to clear some people out of the treatment room this week.

"The timing of this international break is bad but hopefully our players will come back without injuries," he told the Gunners' official website.

"I hope as well that we can get some players back like Samir Nasri, like Manuel Almunia, like Lukasz Fabianski, during this break."

Everton are another team with problems, but they have announced that it is '99 per cent certain' that Phil Neville will not need an operation to cure his knee injury.

The Toffees' captain has been out of action since damaging knee ligaments in the defeat to Fulham in September.

"The surgeon has seen Phil twice now," Rathbone told Everton's official website on Wednesday.

"He was 90 per cent certain he didn't need surgery on the first visit and now he is 99 per cent certain Phil doesn't need an operation.

"You can never say never but, the way Phil is going in his rehabilitation, we're happy he is going to do well.

"He's been on the bike today and the cross-skier and he is telling me he is running tomorrow which was a bit of a shock to me because that is not in the schedule. But he is doing well and we are really happy with him."

Meanwhile, Steven Pienaar and Joseph Yobo are both expected to return from injury against Wolves.

Pienaar (knee) and Yobo (thigh) have both been sidelined recently, but Everton expect them to be available for the arrival of Mick McCarthy's side on 17th October.

"Steven got headbutted on the inside of the knee against Portsmouth and it was just unfortunate it caught him right on the medial ligament!" Rathbone said.

"He can use the exercise bike but it is pretty sore. I would, though, expect him to be there or thereabouts for the Wolves game."

Rathbone added on Yobo's status: "It was so, so minor. But if you do an injury like that the night before a game it doesn't give you a lot of time to recover.

"Joe has gone off with the Nigerian squad as they've got a very important game against Mozambique on Sunday and I think he will be fit for that."

Other injury snippets include Ledley King likely to return from a hamstring injury next week and Jose Bosingwa missing Portugal training with his hamstring problem.

Cheers,
AM