Arsenal's Eduardo suffers grim injury

Feb 23, 2008 - 7:51 PM By John Curtis Special to PA SportsTicker

BIRMINGHAM, England (Ticker) - Arsenal striker Eduardo suffered a suspected broken shin and leg Saturday in a horror tackle in the opening stages of the Gunners' 2-2 draw at Birmingham City.

Eduardo was chopped down by Birmingham defender Martin Taylor, who was shown an immediate red card.

Eduardo, a Brazilian-born Croatian international who turns 25 on Monday, now faces a lengthy lay off and may not play again in 2008.

"This tackle is absolutely horrendous," said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. "If you watch it again, you can't say the guy has played the ball. It is not acceptable."

The game was stopped for several minutes while Eduardo was tended to on the pitch, and both his teammates and medical staff appeared shocked by the extent of the injury.

An emotional Wenger claimed Taylor should receive a lifetime ban for the tackle, although that is not a likely outcome.

"The injury is the result of a very bad tackle that is not forgivable," Wenger said. "The first diagnosis is that the injury is very bad. He appears to have broken his shin and his fibula.

"As far as I am concerned, this guy should never play football again. The answer you normally get after a tackle like that is 'he is not the type of guy who does that.' It's like a guy who kills one time in his life. It's enough. You have a dead person."

Wenger admitted that his players were affected by the injury as they labored through the first half of the game, which ended in a tie after Birmingham was given a penalty in second-half injury time.

"It affected us one hundred percent in the first half but we also have to look at ourselves," Wenger said. "We should have killed the game off earlier and scored the third goal. We didn't do that."

James McFadden gave Birmingham a half-time lead courtesy of a stunning 20-yard free-kick but Arsenal woke up in the second half with Theo Walcott's first league goals for the club putting the Gunners ahead.

But then in injury time McFadden hammered home the penalty to give City a precious point in the battle to stay in the top flight.

Eduardo was taken to hospital and it may be some time before there is a timetable for his return.

He appears certain to miss Euro 2008 this summer, and may not play again this year.

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish leapt to the defence of Taylor who now faces an automatic three-match suspension for his red card.

"I am not going to comment on what Arsene has said. After a game microphones are thrust into a manager's face and sometimes they react like that.

"But any of you who know Martin Taylor through the years, will know he is not a dirty player. It was just a case of Eduardo being too quick for him. His foot wasn't that high. It is on Eduardo's ankle for he was too quick for him."

McLeish even claimed Taylor should not have been sent off.

"We are devastated for Eduardo and Martin is distraught - not about the sending off but the injury to the player," he said.

"I didn't think it was a sending off challenge. I think he mis-timed it and perhaps on another occasion you might say to Martin 'stand up and don't dive in.'"