Injury Update 27/10/09

 From football365.com:-

We do seem to be mentioning Alberto Aquilani rather a lot in our injury updates - and it's not only because it gives us a chance to muse on his missus. But those times are coming to an end as the Italian looks set to come off the bench for Liverpool against Arsenal on Wednesday night.

"He will be with us. He is improving his fitness, so he's in the squad." said Benitez. "He cannot start at this moment but he will be there and maybe we can give him some minutes. If it's possible we will try to use him."

Steven Gerrard should be back for Saturday's trip to Fulham. Benitez told Liverpoolfc.tv: "Gerrard will not be available for this game but he is improving, so hopefully he can be ready for Saturday."

Martin Kelly (ankle) and Albert Riera (hamstring) are also out, but there is better news for Benitez in that both Andrea Dossena and Sotirios Kyrgiakos could feature.

Benitez added: "Dossena has been training and will be in the squad. It was one or two small things with him.

"Kyrgiakos has been training. We had bad news when everyone was talking about him being out for six months after the internationals. It wasn't that bad because now he's training and he's available too."

Lining up on the opposite side to Aquilani will be Samir Nasri, who is yet to make a first-team appearance for Arsenal this season after breaking his leg in July. He will be joined by Lukasz Fabianski, who has missed the start of the season - and the chance to deputise for Manuel Almunia - with a knee injury.

But before Arsenal and Liverpool meet at the Emirates on Wednesday night, Manchester United travel to Barnsley. Darren Fletcher could feature for United after recovering from an ankle injury, while Gabriel Obertan will finally make his United debut after joining in the summer with a back problem.

Manchester City manager Mark Hughes will be without a number of key players for the Carling Cup match against Scunthorpe on Wednesday night.

Kolo Toure (heel), Martin Petrov and Wayne Bridge (both knee) have failed to recover from injury while Roque Santa Cruz remains doubtful with tonsilitis.

Tottenham have their own problems too, with Jonathan Woodgate and Aaron Lennon joining Ledley King, Luka Modric and Giovani Dos Santos on the sidelines.

"Jonathan took a bad blow to the head and he's gone for a scan today to make sure he hasn't fractured his cheekbone. His face is very swollen and we have to make sure he's okay. Obviously he's not available," said Harry Redknapp.

"Aaron has also gone for a scan to see what damage he's done to his ankle, hopefully it's not to bad and he'll recover."

"We've one or two more out as well - Ledley's still not fit, Luka and Gio - and Jermain is suspended."

Redknapp did add that King is hopeful of being fit in time for the weekend's clash with Arsenal.

There's some rare good news for Everton, who have included Yakubu in their squad to face Spurs in the Carling Cup after he recovered from a bruised heel.

Johnny Heitinga and Tim Cahill also travelled despite picking up knocks at the weekend so Everton's injured list has been reduced to just ten names.

Bolton striker Johan Elmander is set to return for Bolton in their Carling Cup fourth-round tie against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night. The Swede has been missing with a hamstring injury, but he is now back in full training and should be available for the match at Stamford Bridge.

The good news for Sunderland fans is that Darren Bent's injury is not as bad as first feared. He will miss the Carling Cup clash with Aston Villa but should be fit for the weekend.

"We hope Darren will be okay for Saturday, but he had a bad knock," Bruce was quoted as saying by Sky Sports. "He twisted and wobbled everything. It was close to being serious, but we don't think it is, thankfully."

So a mixture of news & I'm sure there'll be much more to consider after the Carling Cup games this week.

I'm still trying to decide whether to stick with mostly double gamers for Week 10, or back single gamers to perform. My experience tells me to pick double gamers, but until Yahoo 100% confirm a double week either by updating the fixtures or via the Offical Blog it makes me feel a tiny bit uneasy, even though I'm 99.99% sure it WILL be a double week.

I've been  re-reading the latest set of rules on Yahoo & they repeatedly state that a "game week" runs from the deadline on a Saturday to the following Saturday, so we can be pretty confident that the "missing" West Ham v Aston Villa fixture is mearly an oversight which they'll correct in the next day or 2.

If I do go with single gamers then Blackburn's squad are falling apart with Swine Flu, so having a bunch of United players could be the way the to go instead. Rooney, Nani & Giggs are all on my radar.

Blog League 6 is filling up quickly so if you don't have a space in one of the leagues yet then be quick as this is definitely the final one. Details below:

Group ID: 23246
Password: yahoo

Week 10 Player Picks will be up tomorrow.

Cheers,
AM