Forgiving Eduardo out until Christmas

The Arsenal striker, who broke his fibula and dislocated his ankle joint in the appalling collision at St Andrew's on Saturday, will not be able to start running again until the summer at the earliest.

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Although Arsenal are confident the Croatia forward will make a full recovery after surgery on Saturday evening in Selly Oak Hospital, there are no guarantees he will be able to play at the top level again.

Eduardo spent his birthday in a London hospital — he turned 25 yesterday — coming to terms with the challenge that has left him in plaster.

The Brazilian-born player, who received a visit from Taylor on Sunday evening, said: "It was an accident and I don't believe he wanted to hurt me.

"These things can happen in football. I see this as a risk of professional football. That is sport. Sometimes you go up, sometimes you go down. There are very nice moments and there are very ugly moments.

"My birthday is not important. My family are by my side and that is all the celebration I need. My wife and family cried a lot and that was hard for me. They were afraid, but they have calmed down a lot."

Eduardo has scored 12 times since his move from Dinamo Zagreb last summer, but Arsenal supporters will have to wait until 2009 before he has any chance of a first-team return.

An orthopaedic surgeon and Arsenal's medical staff assessed the extent of the damage to Eduardo yesterday. "All being well, he will have his leg in plaster and be using crutches for the next six to eight weeks," said an Arsenal statement.

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Experts revealed yesterday that Eduardo could have lost his leg in the incident, but the quick thinking of Arsenal physio Gary Lewin saved the ghastly prospect of an amputation.

Leading physiotherapist Tim Allen said: "You can lose your foot, simple as that. Once the foot dislocates like that, it can badly damage blood vessels and it's very, very serious.

"The foot needs to be relocated immediately to save it and emergency surgery is completely necessary.

"Imagine the worst ankle sprain and make it about 10 times worse and you're close to where Eduardo is.

"With the level of fitness he will need to get back to, his recovery time could be anywhere near nine months.

"He's going to have to do an awful lot of work to regain full mobility and strength to the ankle to get him up to the standard of playing international football. Whether he can do that or not, I'm not sure."

Taylor has been on an emotional rollercoaster since the moment Wenger claimed he "should be banned for life".

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He has received abuse and threats from angry Croatia supporters and a group of journalists from the country had to be removed from Birmingham's training ground when they tried to stop his car as he drove away.

Taylor's punishment is a three-game suspension, but Birmingham manager Alex McLeish claimed his player could have been left psychologically scarred by the incident in the 2-2 draw.

McLeish said: "There has been a furore over the incident which has gone too far and we would like to draw a line under it. Let Martin get on with his career and let's hope Eduardo gets back as soon as possible.

"I've heard about the threats. There are some crazy people in the world. You've just got to get on and dismiss those things. He's got to make challenges again in his career without getting a mental block.

"We've had to rally around Martin because he was mentally shattered by the experience. I would have been worried about him coming into training today had we not received the support from people the length and breadth of the country.

"The fact he has had such magnificent support has helped psychologically because I felt he could have been damaged.

"We have shown as a club that we are right behind the big fellow. We have rallied around him, got him back into training. It was important he did that as soon as possible."

Although the Birmingham manager has accepted Wenger's apology for his misguided interpretation of the incident, there are allegations over the behaviour of Cesc Fabregas.

The Arsenal midfielder, who disgraced himself last season by questioning Mark Hughes's credentials to be a top manager, allegedly branded Birmingham a 'rugby team' in the aftermath of Taylor's challenge.