Good news for Arsenal and especially for their shattered striker Eduardo da Silva. The Brazilian born Croatian international striker was hit by a career-threatening broken leg injury at the weekend when Birmingham City’s Martin Taylor crashed into him in the third minute of the Premiership fixture between the two sides and it was expected that he would miss out of football for at least a year.
But now it has been confirmed that Da Silva will be back playing football this year, possibly in the middle of next season. A statement on the club’s official website said that Da Silva will recover full fitness after 9 months and reads:
The club can confirm that following the incident during Saturday’s match at Birmingham City, Eduardo has fractured his left fibula and sustained an open dislocation of his ankle joint in the same leg.
He was immediately taken to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham where he underwent surgery on Saturday evening. The operation was successful and Eduardo was transferred to a London-based hospital on Sunday afternoon.
Earlier today (Monday, 25th February), the orthopaedic surgeon and Arsenal medical staff assessed the extent of the damage and possible time-scale for a full recovery.
All being well, Eduardo will have his leg in plaster and using crutches for the next six to eight weeks. After that time, partial weight-bearing exercises will be scheduled into a slow rehabilitation process.
It is hoped that Eduardo will be running again in six months’ time and making a full recovery after nine months.
At least the highly rated striker will be playing football from the middle of next season. Too bad that the Gunners wouldn’t have the luxury of playing him this season.