Which footballers are injured

Both players involved have suffered heavily with injury problems over the past few years, with the Gunners' midfielder now facing a race to prove his form and fitness ahead of the World Cup.

They're far from the only players in England's top flight who suffer from enforced absences with annoying regularity. Here's our collection of 20, headed by the combative duo themselves. Wilshere is a pivotal part of the team at both club and country level, but both have had to operate without him far too often. Despite breaking through in the season, Wilshere has reached the game barrier just once in his career so far and amassed only 15 caps—arguably he should be at least 10 further along in his international career by this point.

Ankle injuries have been his most frequent issue, but this latest foot fracture is another setback for Wilshere. Liverpool defender Daniel Agger has had more than his own share of problems and there would have been a few Reds fans wondering if he would come off worse when he went into the tackle with Wilshere. In his eight years on Merseyside, he has averaged less than 29 matches a season for Liverpool—long-term injuries essentially meant he missed almost all the season and plenty of long stretches since.

An improved season on the injury front saw him play more than 30 games in a league campaign for the first time, but this year he has missed out again with a calf injury. There may not be a more injury-prone midfielder in the Premier League than Arsenal's enforcer Abou Diaby. Now 27 years old, he has been at the club eight years and has amassed only just over league appearances.

The past year has seen him absent with a cruciate ligament injury after he missed around four months with calf and thigh injuries in and missed the Champions League final in with a fractured ankle, which needed multiple operations to fix. Nemanja Vidic will depart Manchester United this season after nine years at the club and will be largely remembered as one of their best defenders of the Premier League age—but he's also been missing with injury with disappointing regularity.

Having put two impressive seasons together in and , Vidic has only managed one single campaign since then in which he has featured in at least 30 league games, so repetitive have been his strains, knocks and problems. In fact, he has managed only 43 league appearances in the last three campaigns combined.

A long-term cruciate injury was the worst, but other knee and calf injuries have also played their part. Stuart Holden is technically no longer a Premier League player, having been relegated to the Bolton Wanderers, but his quality is such that he would undoubtedly be back in the top flight In , he was caught late in a tackle by Manchester United defender Jonny Evans, which fractured his leg and required a six-month recovery period. Antonio Valencia's eye. He lined up against Reading in the last game of the Championship season, scoring the second goal in a win which sent Latics up to the Premier League.

That was the line delivered to German soldier Trautmann when he was captured by British soldiers during the Second World War. Visibly crooked when collecting his winners medal, it was discovered that Trautmann had in fact broken his neck in the challenge.

The Ivorian continued after landing awkwardly, but a scan revealed he had torn his anterior cruciate ligament and would miss the rest of the season. Merci a tous nos supporters! Bedankt aan al onze supporters! What wouldn't you do for your country hey? Of course Psycho makes an appearance in this list. On November 7, the starlet suffered a torn meniscus on his left knee during a game against Real Betis. Fati has been out ever since then but has returned back to training. Barcelona announced that they are confident that the La Masia graduate will make a return to the first team by the end of the month bringing an end to a four-month hiatus.

He received the injury in an international game against the Netherlands, when he locked into a collision with Donny Van De Beek. It resulted in Zaniolo sustaining his second cruciate ligament injury in and that has since kept him out of the reckoning.

Zaniolo is yet to feature in a single game for Roma this season and the severity of the injury means that he could be out for the rest of the season. Liverpool have endured a torrid time this season with plenty of their star players out with long term injuries. But, none have been more severely affected than English centre-back Joe Gomez who endured an injury to his knee patella tendonitis.

Gomez suffered the injury during training with the England national team and has since been on the sidelines for more than four months. Despite there being reports that he could be out for the rest of the season, Gomez has returned to working on his fitness with the Liverpool staff and is working hard on getting back to action by the end of the season to keep his hopes alive of making it to the England squad for the Euros. Liverpool ace Virgil Van Dijk is yet another of the footballers who suffered long-term injuries in this season.

I don't want heading to stop. I'm not saying for one second Luiz meant to do that, absolutely not. I just think when you're going at that speed. With the feet at that speed you know you could get cautioned or sent off but it doesn't come into the mind of people when it's with the head. Luke Griggs, deputy chief executive of brain injury association charity Headway, told Sky Sports News football needs to 'move with the times' and introduce temporary concussion substitutions.

It's an evolving injury and the symptoms can take some time to present themselves. Former Wolves striker Don Goodman knows all too well what it takes to recover from such an injury having sustained a fractured skull himself - also while playing for Wolves - back in He hopes Jimenez's injury is not career-threatening and will him to have a full recovery like he did. I went for a near-post header from a corner and I was the one who instigated the contact unfortunately.

If you imagine a ping-pong ball and you press it in and it stays indented that's what my fracture was. The surgeon drilled four holes in my skull, lifted it out and that alleviated the pressure, and then it was all about the recovery after that and how strong the head recovered.

There are different types of fracture and I'm hoping Raul has suffered the one that gives him the best chance of making a full recovery and playing again.