Later tonight, Chile face Uruguay in a World Cup qualifier, and Arsenal fans already holding their breath about the fitness of Alexis Sanchez have more to worry about as it’s been revealed he’s suffering from a calf problem.
The Arsenal forward has been under-par in recent weeks, most likely due to fatigue, and two hugely competitive internationals won’t do him any favours before his return to London. Fears over his fitness were exacerbated when Chile coach Jorge S confirmed a pain his calf.
“Alexis had pain in his calf,” he said, “and we will wait for him until the last minute to see if he is ready to play.”
Given the importance of the game, and the fact that Alexis would play football in a blizzard in the nude against a team of werewolves, the chances of him not playing tonight are slim. If he doesn’t, the calf problem is more serious than we’d like. If he does, there’s the risk it could become more serious than we’d like.
Fingers crossed. Everything crossed.
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I suppose this is, unfortunately, something we’re going to have to get used to.
What a load of cunts.
They can’t keep justifying playing him when he is injured because its an important match and he is their best player. Alexis is so close to burning out, the guy’s fucked, he needs a rest… and this sort of shit is just ludicrous if you’re injured – you’re injured, their fucking medical team should be smart enough to know that,
Well, to be fair, we play a burned out Alexis too because we are marred with injuries. No reason to complain really. The guy is phenomenal and both the teams he plays in are being equally selfish. The only person who may have a right to complain in such a scenario is Alexis. But he wouldn’t.
Though he wouldn’t, and as you say we (shamefully) haven’t given him much rest either (though I’m sure his body has been treated like that of a demi-god by our training staff), he just needs to get a rest during the next couple of weeks, though, he won’t.
“… the fact that Alexis would play football in a blizzard in the nude against a team of werewolves, the chances of him not playing tonight are slim.”
Best analogy of the last month, this, Bloggs! Keep it up.
This is getting ridiculous. Clubs have got to start putting clauses in contracts against this sort of thing.
Against us overplaying him right before two important qualifier matches for his national side in which he is the star player?
Yes. We pay his wages.
I can imagine how that conversation will go:
Wenger: Alexis I need you to not take part in the qualifiers for your country, we do pay your wages afterall!
Alexis: *hands in transfer request with with same lightning speed we see him burst past defences*
Wenger: Ummm, what about money?
Alexis’ agent: Man U, City, Real, Chelsea and Bayern are all willing to double what your earning, we’re good to go.
Wenger: Bugger!
That doesn’t mean players have to give up playing for their national teams! I’m no fan of International football or am I Chilean. Just as we have played him in most games (which is the majority of the games he has played in this season), Chile have every right to play him in qualifiers. He is as important to them, as he is to us. If we want Alexis rested, we need to find our own games that he can be rested for. I don’t understand the double standards of it being very important for any English man to represent… Read more »
The story is headlined: Alexis set to play DESPITE calf problem. Sounds to me like an injured player is being selected to play for a team that doesn’t pay his wages. I think clubs could start putting clauses in contracts and perhaps claim compensation when their players get injured on international duty.
A compensation scheme already exists. If he gets hurt on international duty the nation pays his wages while he’s out.
Of course not having to pay the 130k a week does not begin to make up for missing your star player through injury, but that’s just life.
Surely alexis himself has to take responsibility. If he gets injured tonight…he knows what damage this could do to his club, that pays his wages, and to out title prospects. No one is saying dont play. But dont risk ure health and in turn kill ure clubs ambitions for the season
He needs some rest ASAP. For the past few games even for arsenal he hasn’t been at his best. So its only logical he is rested for a game or two so that he recuperates and returns to his level.
Hopefully there’ll be a few back from injury after the internationals and he can a get a week or two off
Rest him all the way up until the ManCity game. I see no point in playing him if he’s so far in the red zone he’s ineffective for the team anyway and in danger of damaging himself (and arsenals title prospects) much longer lasting damage.
I have to agree. He’s been poor for us this season apart from the game at Leicester and Utd. Looks tired and needs to rest. Just give him two weeks off and hopefully he’ll come back fit and firing and more like the Alexis we know.
If he played against werewolves exclusively, he’d get a good rest between games,
as they only metamorphose on the full moon.
It’s always a full moon somewhere. Alexis would just run to where ever the wolf people are spawning.
Alexis is Chilean and wanted by his country, Chile, to play against Uruguay in a World Cup qualifier. He’s hardly going to ask to be left out because he has a tricky match away to WBA at the weekend is he ?
Good luck to the boy…..he’s a fucking trooper and we are so lucky to have him.
Fingers crossed everyone…
From a club point of view, its absolutely nonsensical to allow your players to go off every couple of months or so to play in games all over the world in which they can (and with our record probably will) get injured. You can’t just pay millions in wages and pray everything will be OK in the end.
Motherfu*****!
I agree, he should be forced to rest. I do think Wenger plays players to the ground, if this happens to Alexis, the pitchforks will be out again.
Its not just Wenger, all coaches play their best player as often as possible. I don’t think Madrid rests Ronaldo or Barca rests Messi unless they complain of any difficulty.
Hope our commando comes back healthy
We can’t expect a player to play every game If our squad is not strong enough to cope with no Alexis, fantastic player that he is,for a few games there’s something seriously wrong that we need to sort out!
One of the major reasons we all love Alexis is his commitment. His ability to give 100% in every game he plays in is invaluable, especially when you factor in his talent, but his diligence is a double edged sword and I hope Arsene finds a way to rest him for the weekend. Afterall, there is no way Alexis is not playing a key qualifier for his country as he strikes me as a player who prioritises national duty over club responsibility.
Part of me feels aggrieved that they’re obviously taking risks with him and would much prefer that he were rested. But really, he is their best player in two tricky and important matches. Don’t be a cunt like Coleman and pretend you don’t care what managers say while resting Bale, but it’s hardly like they’re meaningless friendlies. Plus if Alexis asked to miss out that would mean he isn’t the same Alexis who has been so wonderful since coming here. Quite the moral quandary I find myself in regarding in which way to be outraged. Just off to read some… Read more »
He needs rest anyway.
West Brom, Norwich, Sunderland and Aston villa are the next 4 BPL matches with the CL matches also. With Ox, Ramsey and Bellerin coming back, we can afford to stagger his involvements to give him that rest before the busy xmas season.
We should put him in an incubation chamber during internationals.
This makes a lot of sense. He was knackered even on the last interlul and they played him. That was a good idea. Because if you overplay you increase chance of injury and then can’t play him at all. Then this time he’s extremely knackered, even an idiot like me could see that on my TV. And they acknowledged it and said they’d take care, so they played him anyway. It was a great idea, now he seems to be injured. I think they should play him again. Then he’ll probably get injured, have his season disrupted at Arsenal and… Read more »
We need Alexis kicking buts and ass this Christmas.. Give him a break
Buts and ass, so conjunctions and small horse like animals?
I guess Mel is staying in his well….
Chile isn’t doing him any favours.
When he returns to us, we need to find a way to get him some time off. Proviso we have Ox and Walcott, Ramsey back, we could rotate him a little over next 2-3 games.
My first thought upon seeing the headline was a sarcastic “That makes a lot of sense.” But now I’m hoping that the pain is in a baby cow owned by Alexis that his lovable dogs chased a little too much around the pasture. Get better soon young calf!
Given how much he’s played his natural stance on the field may be very close to that in the photograph from kick off tonight. He’ll still probably score a couple though!
played 90 mins but was on the end of a 3-0 defeat…didn’t score a couple. The guy is human and sure needs rest; I hope his calf didn’t get worse.
cant we buy him from chile as well?