Arsenal rocked by Gallas injury blow

Williams Gallas has delivered another devastating injury blow to Arsenal's Premier League title hopes.

Gallas, 32, broke down in training as he desperately tried to recover from a calf injury to face Porto in Arsenal’s Champions League showdown tonight.

Arsene Wenger, who is already without injured captain Cesc Fabregas, now admits that Gallas is “back to square one" and could miss another month of Arsenal’s run-in.

Gunners boss Wenger said: “Gallas has been out for a month and now he has had a recurrence of his calf injury. He felt very well on Sunday and went out, but he has gone backwards again. We are back at the starting point with Gallas unfortunately.

“We don’t know how long it will be. He will have a scan and we will assess it from there, but for Hull this weekend, for example, he has no chance.

”We were impatient with him and we pushed him and he wanted to get on as well, that is why maybe it has happened. But there is no obvious sign as to why it keeps coming back. He has no pain at all, then goes for a little jog and then it goes again.”

It is a massive blow for Arsenal to lose another senior player, having already lost Fabregas for tonight’s Champions League clash while Robin van Persie is struggling to play again this season after his serious ankle injury.

Arsenal’s whole campaign has been disrupted by injuries and Wenger admits that he has even ordered an investigation into why they keep happening and yet has had no proper answers.

Fabregas missed training yesterday with his long-running hamstring injury, went for a scan and Wenger says he has a “small chance" of being back to face Hull. But the club do not want to risk the injury recurring so will not gamble on him.

Fabregas said: “I wanted to play but the doctors recommended that I rest and avoid any risk. I am very sad to miss out because Porto is important to us. I will suffer far more than usual, having to watch from the side.”

Meanwhile, Wenger yesterday confirmed that Arsenal will meet with Gallas’ representatives this week and the club are considering bending their strict rules on only offering over-30s a 12 month extension.

But the deal will not be a straight two-year extension and is likely to be one year plus a 12 month option, as first revealed on MirrorFootball .

Arsenal set to lose Gallas as Wenger sticks to guns  

Wenger added: “We meet his agent this week. I am very resolute. Usually we always offer a one year contract for an older player.”