Ramsey injury sparks debate

Aaron Ramsey lies in agony after breaking his leg against Stoke

Arsenal FC have confirmed that 19-year-old Welsh midfielder Aaron Ramsey will miss the remainder of the season after fracturing his right fibula and tibia in the Premier League match at Stoke last night.

The injury, which brought back horrible memories of Eduardo’s career-threatening injury at Birmingham two years ago, was caused as a result of Ryan Shawcross’ challenge – an incident that resulted in Shawcross receiving a straight red card. The defender, who was later confirmed in Fabio Capello’s England squad for the friendly against Egypt on Wednesday, left the field in tears at the horror of the injury.

Ramsey is the 3rd Arsenal player to be on the receiving end of dangerous tackles in the last 5 years. Abou Diaby broke his ankle against Sunderland in 2005, before Eduardo’s horrendous leg break in early 2008. It’s something that Arsene Wenger believes is not a coincidence.

"I’m not very happy with the tackle. We know what we are expecting, a battle everywhere, but we have now lost three players on horrendous tackles and I refuse to believe it is always coincidence."

Wenger’s words, understandably said with anger and sadness, has sparked a debate over team’s over-aggressive approach to playing Arsenal. Cesc Fabregas felt that incidents like this have no place in football.

"In five years I’ve seen three of them. Abou (Diaby), Eduardo, and now Aaron. What can I say. It’s difficult. You could say we are not protected enough. We are victims… There are things that are a little too much but three times in five years is a little bit too much."

So are Arsenal victims of their own gameplan? Many pundits have suggested that the pace in which Arsenal play their football is one of the reasons that three horrifying injuries have occurred in a short space of time. People like Martin Taylor (the Birmingham defender responsible for breaking Eduardo’s leg) and Ryan Shawcross are certainly not as quick as their Arsenal counterparts, and this may play a role in the timing of their challenges.

Certainly there was no malice on Shawcross’ part. Tony Pulis claimed that Shawcross “left the field crying his eyes out”, and the pictures clearly prove that. He was distraught, and highly apologetic after the match, and I’m sure will be visiting Aaron Ramsey in hospital in the near future.

Wenger surely has a point though. This can’t be coincidence. It’s been suggested that the only way to stop Arsenal playing their enterprising style of football is to be ultra-physical against them, as they can’t handle a battle. Now this isn’t to say that professional players go out there to deliberately injure fellow professionals, but when a team partakes in a more aggressive style against the Gunners, the risk that someone is going to get seriously hurt is obviously higher. It’s just very unfortunate that Aaron Ramsey has become a victim of such play.

Could referees offer Arsenal more protection? I’m not sure there’s much they can do, apart from send players off for bad challenges, and make sure that they diffuse any potentially dangerous situations. Football is a competitive game, and things like this are always going to happen. Arsenal receive as much protection from officials as any other club in the League, so I’m not sure that Cesc Fabregas has any ground for argument.

It’s obviously a horrible feeling for the players at Arsenal, who have had to witness at least 2 horrendous injuries in recent times. The reaction of both sets of players underlined how much events like this effect players, and one only hopes that it doesn’t happen to them.

Many say that Eduardo’s injury was the turning point in Arsenal’s season back in 2008. They were top of the table, 5 points clear of Manchester United and 3 points at St. Andrews would have made them sure fire favourites to run away with the title. However, the injury to the Croatian international, who is still feeling his way back into the Arsenal first team, had a massive effect on his teammates. William Gallas was resigned to sitting on the pitch at the end of the 2-2 draw, almost in tears, and ended up losing the captaincy over his actions that day. Arsenal never regained their composure, and ended up finishing 3rd, 4 points behind the eventual winners Manchester United.

It seems the experience of the final few months of that season played an important part in last night’s 3-1 victory. For a few minutes after Ramsey was carried off the pitch on a stretcher, very few tackles were made, and there was a certain lull in the game. However, in the last 7 or 8 minutes, Arsenal stepped up a gear and managed to find two goals to put them firmly back in the title race. A Fabregas penalty, and Thomas Vermaelen’s 8th goal of the season sealed a precious 3 points for Arsene Wenger, and gave Arsenal something positive to take to the bedside of Welsh football’s next big thing.

From all of us here at WDKF, we wish Aaron Ramsey a very speedy recovery to full fitness, and we wish to see him back in action as soon as possible.