Gallas to miss W.B.A. trip with ankle injury


William Gallas has been ruled out of Tuesday night's trip to West Bromwich Albion.

The French defender has a niggling ankle problem which needs attention and he will be replaced by Johan Djourou at the Hawthorns.

Arsène Wenger had no other new injuries to report when he spoke exclusively to Arsenal TV Online on Monday afternoon. Theo Walcott has resumed full training but tomorrow's Premier League clash comes too early for the England winger.

"William is out for tomorrow's game, because he has an ankle problem for a while and we want to cure it. He will be back for Sunday," said Wenger.

"Nobody else is back for tomorrow so apart from William Gallas everyone else will be involved. Johan Djourou will come in at centre back.

"But I will not rotate too much because there are five days before the Burnley game. There will be one or two but what we try to do is rotate a little bit without losing the balance of the team."

Walcott (shoulder), Cesc Fabregas (knee), Tomas Rosicky (hamstring tendon), Mikael Silvestre (calf), Eduardo and Emmanuel Adebayor (both hamstring) are still waiting to return to first-team action. According to Wenger, there is an outside chance of three of them facing Burnley in the FA Cup on Sunday.

"Theo is good, he just needs to get used to contact in training, but it looks positive," he said. "Eduardo has a small chance to be back for Burnley, even [Emmanuel] Adebayor has a small chance, maybe Burnley will be too tight, but a small chance.

"Fabregas and Rosicky [will return in] three weeks." daumenhoch