Me and Eduardo have one thing in common - we share the same birthday. I'm sitting here fit as a fiddle having come back from my birthday dinner. Eduardo, on the other hand is in hospital recovering from his unfortunate weekend.

Public reaction has been good and bad. GilbertoSilver from Gunnerblog re-interated my feelings from yesterday’s blog in reaction to Stephen Kelly’s comments. Sometimes you back your team mates, but sometimes you just keep quiet.

Another team mate and former Gunner, Seb Larsson basically loses all the respect he gained with the winner at Sp*rs earlier this season with his comments. He calls Wenger childish and a sore loser. Not great timing Mr Larsson. Here’s the quote.

I am determined to overcome injury

Eduardo, who turns 25 today, released a statement last night, which I have quoted here in full:

This statement sums up the attitude of Eduardo. He is a professional and he has so much passion and desire that he knows he will come back from this. You have to admire his sheer desire and will to not let this prevent him from acheiving his goals. Eduardo famously slept in a Croatian stadium as a teenager at sub-zero temperatures, he has got to where he got to by hard work and will power.

Eduardo moved to praised the Arsenal medical staff and the staff from Selly Oak Hospital, and it was confirmed today that if the medical staff had not been so quick in attending and treating the injury, Eduardo could have lost his foot. As these pictures show, he foot was virtually disconnected from the rest of his leg. Sorry for the graphic description, but in reality, this is what has happened. People some time forget how a brutal challenge can end someone’s career. Hopefully for Eduardo, that is not the case. The Gooner Forum talks about how the FA really need to take steps against this sort of thing.

I remember when Eduardo joined Arsenal this summer, his determination was apparent…

This goal against Man City was a real gem, and an example of his quality.

BBC radio 5 live had an osteopath on their show today, who said:

Well, there is a lot of truth in that, and most people are saying that recovering from this psychologically is half the battle. I must have read / watched a dozen interviews and discussions and I’m confident that Eduardo will come back stronger than ever.

There is a slightly twisted picture, not of Eduardo but of Martin Taylor, so if you fancy a twist to this blog, take a look. I don’t think it’s real personally and let’s all hope it’s not.

Flamini has been talking about how this incident will fuel the team’s hunger even further to win the title for Eduardo. I hope we win it for him. Flamini spoke after the game on Saturday and said:

Better news this afternoon, Eduardo could be running again in 6 months

Arsenal.com have been posting messages for Eduardo and you can send your messages to the web site or write to him personally.

You can read the messages here or as suggested, if you want to write to him, the address is:

Eduardo da Silva, c/o Arsenal FC, Highbury House, 75 Drayton Park, London, England, N5 1BU.

A club statment released today says Eduardo may be back in approximately 9 months, which is awesome news.

It’s amazing that he could come back so quickly. Full recovery in 9 months? – it may be a bit premature to estimate that; fitness levels will play an important part in the recovery too. But I’d say let’s wait and see what happens in the next few weeks. In 9 months, or even 10 months, would see him return next December. As East Lower says, The next pint you have, raise it to Eduardo.

A little something that Young Guns pointed out is that you can vote for Eduardo for the Carling Cup player of the season. Some people may think this is in “charity” due to the injury – but realistically, he scored 4 wonderful goals through out the campaign and they were all special.

Tomorrow I will be looking at our attacking options in his absence in more detail having briefly mentioned our options yesterday…

Just before I go, a shout out to all the fans of other teams, even our bitter rivals, who have taken time out to spare a thought for Eduardo; OnlyOneUnited said, “I wish Eduardo a speedy recovery and hope everything works out for him”, cheers guys, I’m sure Dudu would be touched.]]>

Tags: Arsenal, birmingham, da silva, eduardo, premier league, recovery

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 11:32 pm and is filed under Arsenal, Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.