Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas says he hopes to avoid surgery after breaking his nose in midweek.
Fabregas was injured after he came on to replace Fernando Torres, himself now out for 10 – 15 days with a hamstring injury, in Spain’s World Cup qualifier against Belgium.
Fabregas bravely decided to stay bon the pitch and helped his side to a 2 – 1 victory, Valencia striker David Villa scoring the winner with what was his 5th goal in 4 qualifying games.
Speaking to Spanish agency EFE, Fabregas said:
There is a fracture but it has not come away from the main partition in the nose.
After the game it was pretty swollen but I hope this will not prevent me from playing.
We will have to see if it continues being okay and that I don’t need an operation.
I don’t even know how it happened really, I started going for goal and I do not know if it was a punch or a knee from a Belgian defender but it was a heavy blow.
Meanwhile, and still with Spain, Uefa have temporarily rescinded the home match Champions League ban on Atletico Madrid.
European football’s governing body had ordered Atletico to play their next two matches away from the Vicente Calderon Stadium after crowd trouble.
That meant next week’s game against Liverpool game would have been held at a neutral venue at least 200 miles from Madrid. Liverpool and their fans were themselves none to happy at this late ruling, particularly as thousands of supporters had already made travel plans.
But the decision has been overturned after Uefa listened to Liverpool’s concerns and a subsequent appeal by Atletico.
