Agony: Andre Santos injured his left ankle in Arsenal's
defeat at Olympiakos
Arsenal could head
into the jam-packed Christmas period without any recognised
full-backs after Andre Santos injured his right ankle in the
Champions League loss to Olympiakos.
The Brazilian left-back, one
of the few first-team regulars selected for the 3-1 defeat on
Tuesday, was forced off early in the second half.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger
revealed the extent of the problem, saying: 'Santos suffered a bad
ankle injury. He looks like he'll be out for a while.'
Fellow left-back Kieran Gibbs
has been out since November with a hernia and may only be fit to
return in three weeks. Right-backs Carl Jenkinson and Bacary Sagna
are also injured.
Arsenal are set for an
exhausting run of six Barclays Premier League matches in 24 days,
starting against Everton at the Emirates Stadium on
Saturday.
Lukasz Fabianski meanwhile is
confident of making a speedy recover from the gashed knee he
suffered in the defeat.
Arsenal's No 2 sustained the
injury when accidentally clashing with Thomas
Vermaelen.
'I think I am fine, it’s just
a really deep cut.,' the Pole told the club's official
website.
'It was really unlucky but
hopefully all the ligaments in my knee should be OK. Hopefully
nothing will come out tomorrow or in the next couple of
days.
'I can only talk about the
time I was on the pitch because afterwards I didn’t see anything.
You could see that Olympiacos were really up for it and they were
pushing hard.
'The first goal we conceded
was a bit unlucky because it went off our defender. We could have
maybe come back in a different way but unfortunately we didn’t and
that’s how it finished.'