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The head coach of the London club Arsene Wenger has announced that the French national team and "Gunners" club center-back William Gallas suffered a thigh injury at the end of Monday's training session and will not be able to help his team for several weeks.
French specialist A. Wenger, whose team was preparing for the UEFA Champions League Group G match against Hamburger, said that the player slipped and strained his thigh while striking the ball at the end of the training session. His absence could cause some difficulties for the team.
"We lost Gallas in the final moments of training," said Arsenal's coach Wenger. "He hurt his thigh and will be out for a few weeks. This is a big loss because he stabilizes our team's defense. On the other hand, it will be a great opportunity for younger, less experienced players to shine."
"We want him to recover as soon as possible and start playing not only because of his quality, but also because we have a lot of matches before the winter break," added the coach.
The 29-year-old defender, wearing the Arsenal jersey in the English Premier League this season, has already scored two goals, one of which came against Liverpool when the capital's team swept "The Reds" 3-0 at their new "Emirates" stadium, forming an excellent center-back tandem with Ivory Coast player Kolo Toure.
It is believed that the Frenchman, who left Chelsea at the last minute of the summer transfer window and moved to Arsenal, will be replaced by Swiss national team defenders Philippe Senderos and Johan Djourou.
Good news for the Gunners is that the Swedish midfielder Freddie Ljungberg and Dutchman Robin van Persie completed training without any problems and should play in the match against Hamburger.
Arsenal, who managed to defeat the German resistance in the first UEFA Champions League away game 2-1, was only able to get a draw in the last two matches against Moscow's CSKA and now has seven points together with the Porto team.
With 8 points, CSKA is the leader of the group, while Hamburger started the tournament tragically and suffered four defeats before withdrawing from further competition. One of the most important group matches will take place on December 6th when Porto and Arsenal clash.
