Eduardo To Play for First Team after Christmas!

Eduardo da Silva is working with Tony Colbert and with Neil Banfield’s reserves, and occasionally he comes to first-team sessions.

Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger has finally confirmed that Croatia’s Eduardo da Silva will be playing for Arsenal’s first team after Christmas.

Arsenal’s striker suffered a grave injury in a Premier League match against Birmingham City in February, triggering fears that he might never play again.

But Eduardo is set to play in the Reserves against Portsmouth today.

- After that we will just go from there but he looks very good and very sharp in training – Wenger said on Tuesday.

Even though the Brazilian-born Croatian will be playing in the reserve team today, many are wondering when he will be ready to play for the first team.

- He should be back after Christmas – Arsene Wenger answered that question and added:  “There is no reason why he can’t be as good as before. He is a very young boy and when you have that kind of injury before the age of 25 you recover and progress normally. That is what the statistics say.”

He stressed the team is very lucky that Eduardo is very young because, if you are older, “when you have that kind of injury, it is bye bye to your career."

Eduardo’s team mate Robin van Persie said about da Silva returning to the game that there’s plenty to look forward to in the coming, festive weeks.

- And this could include the long-awaited return of the popular poacher-in-chief, Eduardo – he said.

- He’s working with Tony Colbert and with Neil Banfield’s reserves, and occasionally he comes to first-team sessions. For me, it looks like he’s back again – Robin revealed.

- I’m really excited because he’s a great player, and if I look at him I can’t really see that he had a terrible injury because on his face he’s just smiling and enjoying himself. I can see that he’s desperate to come back and I think all of the fans have something to really look forward to. In the box he is one of the best, unbelievable - I’ve seen him scoring goals in games and in training, making it look so easy, but I know that it’s not! - Van Persie was full of praise for the Croatian player.