Arsenal Football Club News

• Nickname:Gunners
• Founded:1886
• Manager:Arsene Wenger

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Fabregas was fit for Barca

02 Apr 2010 - 15:49:41

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is confident that skipper Cesc Fabregas was fully fit to face Barcelona in midweek, having seen his captain suffer a broken leg in the 2-2 Champions League draw.

Fabregas pulled up after scoring a late penalty at the Emirates Stadium and subsequent scans revealed a small crack in his right fibula.

However, Wenger is happy that his player had recovered fully from a knock sustained in the 1-1 draw at Birmingham City last weekend.

He told reporters: "There were some suggestions that he played with a broken bone - that is not true.

"We had two independent doctors with X-rays who clarified the bone was perfectly okay, a bruised bone, but not broken before the Barcelona game.

"I am 100 per cent confident and I checked that this morning with our medical team. There is no doubt about that, medically we were clear.

"Cesc had a test on the morning of the game, he had another test on the warm-up. It was in my mind if he had said 'no I feel pain', I would never force anybody to play.

"I asked him after the warm-up if he felt perfectly all right and he said yes. He had not a broken bone before the game started.

"We believe that it is from the kick of Carles Puyol on the penalty when he kicks him through the legs. It is on exactly the place where he got kicked against Birmingham.

"He got the crack on his bone, that means he already had a bruised bone before the game and the kick on it made it split."