Injury Update 17/11/09

Firstly, the injury news from football365.com

Sounds as if Dimi Berbatov's knee injury is more serious than first suspected.

The Manchester United striker has been struggling with the injury for a while, and it forced him to miss the recent defeat at Chelsea.

It's now been revealed that he is suffering from fluid on the knee and an operation is a possibility.

An 'Old Trafford insider' is quoted by The Sun as saying: "It is causing quite a bit of discomfort, which is worrying" while a concurring Independent declares, in rather greater depth, that 'the knock Dimitar Berbatov received in United's 2-0 win over Blackburn Rovers on 31 October has exacerbated a fluid on the knee condition, which may require surgery. The striker is with the Bulgarian squad for tomorrow's friendly in Malta and may play a part, and there are hopes he might be nursed through his injury.'

Steven Gerrard has declared himself fit for Liverpool's must-not-lose fixture with Manchester City.

He's also admitted that he really shouldn't have played against Birmingham last week.

"I felt very tired after the game, as I wasn't really ready to return and I'd done very little training in the three weeks beforehand.

"It took me two or three days to recover from that game but I have spent the past week doing strengthening work and I'm feeling a lot better now. I'm looking forward to the weekend. There's no mental hurdle to cross. It's a case of so far so good and the aim now is to make sure I get a good week's training under my belt so I'm ready for the game with City."

Gerrard could be joined by Daniel Agger and Glen Johnson for that game.

Rafa Benitez says: "Agger is okay. He had a small problem with his back but he's training. It was a very good decision from Denmark's manager (to withdraw Agger) because he is much better now. I think he'll be okay for the weekend.

"Johnson has been training. Not full sessions, but training, so hopefully he'll be okay for the weekend too."

But the bad news for Pool is that David Ngog broke his nose whilst on France Under-21 duty. And no, he didn't do throwing it himself to the ground. The Daily Mail says that it actually happened when he was 'hit in the face by a ball during a training session on Sunday'.

But Benitez says: "We know Ngog has broken his nose but it's not serious. I am not sure yet because we haven't seen him but I think he'll be okay, it won't be serious."

Things are clearing up at Chelsea - with Ashley Cole coming through a training session on Monday that has been described as 'intense' by the Evening Standard.

There are still doubts over John Terry (ankle), Didier Drogba (rib) and Michael Ballack (knee), but none of the trio have been ruled out of the game against Wolves this weekend.

The number of Arsenal players currently injured is now up to 11 after Abou Diaby pulled out of the France squad for the second leg of their play-off against the Republic with Ireland.

It's not known yet how serious the injury is.

For the record, the other ten Arsenal players currently listed as crocked by the club are: Robin van Persie, Nicklas Bendtner, Theo Walcott, Denilson, Armand Traore, Gael Clichy, Lukasz Fabianski, Carlos Vela, Jack Wilshere and Johan Djourou.

If you select them in a 3-4-3 formation, you can make a pretty handy team out of that lot.

Now - I'm having real problems this week as I'm away with work AND my laptop is broken, making it almost impossible to write my usual weekly posts (never mind pick my team!). I'm going to try & write my Week 12 Player Picks in my lunch break tomorrow but it won't be extensive as usual, so any help our regular readers can provide in the comments/chat forum would be greatly appreciated this week.

What are people going to do about Drogba? I'm personally going to wait until definitive team news on Friday. And how many double gamers are you going for?

Remember Week 12 is Blog Cup Round 2.

Cheers,
AM