BLOW ... Kolo Toure is struck down with
disease
Toure, 27, picked up the disease at home in the Ivory
Coast and is now a doubt for the start of the new Premier League
campaign. Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has already lost Alex Hleb to
Barcelona, Mathieu Flamini to Milan and Gilberto Silva to
Panathanaikos. And his plans to bring in new faces has been
interrupted with the news of Toure’s illness.
The player was taken to hospital while on the club’s
mini pre-season tour of Austria and Hungary. After tests, he
remained at the team hotel in Austria last night while the Gunners
played out a 1-1 draw across the border against Szombathelyi
Haladas with Theo Walcott on the scoresheet.
Toure was said to be in good spirits last night and was
not believed to be too concerned about his illness. Malaria is
extremely common in Africa. Yakubu, Celestine Babayaro and Lomana
LuaLua have all returned to the Premier League over the last couple
of years having contracted malaria.
Krisztian Kenesei opened the scoring for the home side
last night. But Walcott gave his team-mates a finishing lesson by
smashing home from the edge of the box after being put through by
Nicklas Bendtner just before the break.