Koscielny to start against Japan

Laurent Koscielny ran into Franck Ribery in training with the French national team yesterday, and a nation's hearts stopped. He had to be helped off the training pitch, and Arsenal fans feared for the worst after reports emerged from Julien Laurens that the injury "look[ed] serious." Then some pictures from the incident emerged, and it didn't look quite as bad as originally we were led to believe - but certainly not good.

Well, he's totally fine now. And he's playing in France's friendly tomorrow against Japan. Starting the game, even.

France manager Didier Deschamps was as worried yesterday as we all were, but he's breathing a sigh of relief now.

Deschamps: "Koscielny is feeling well. He will play tomorrow. It looked very worrying yesterday but thanksfully, he is ok" #bleus

— Julien Laurens (@LaurensJulien) October 11, 2012

I guess this just goes to show that even Arsenal players can survive injury scares sometimes, despite what seems like years of evidence to the contrary. Though I personally am a bit peeved that Koscielny is now playing two days after having to be carried out of practice. It seems like if you have a player that just missed serious injury, maybe a pointless friendly against a team that's totally unrelated to your World Cup qualification isn't the best idea for him.

You know, just a thought.