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Abou Diaby has been notably injury-free this season, and over the past week's international break he played (and scored) for France. The French national team is scheduled to play again today, but Diaby will not feature. The precise reason is a bit of a mystery. Is he hurt? Are his managers being cautious with him due to his long injury history? Has he left the team on some sort of secret mission for the French military?
It's probably not the last one, but honestly I wouldn't be that surprised.
The question came up when it was announced that Diaby would not play in today's match against Belarus, but was amplified when French manager Didier Deschamps said some things about him yesterday. The most widely-reported quote is here on Arseblog News:
Abou Diaby [will] struggle to make the game. He took a knock and has some muscular discomfort. Today, he’s not training.
OH NO
But then we had some clarification from people who, like, speak French and such.
"Little hint and little muscular problem" for Diaby. Sounds like a precautious decision, both manager and player don't want to take a risk
— Groover (@GrooverBlog) September 10, 2012
Don't panic about Diaby's case. Sounds like a "diplomatic" injury (like Theo's injury)
— Groover (@GrooverBlog) September 10, 2012
@limpar_assist It's clear that AW claimed for a rest for the player
— Groover (@GrooverBlog) September 10, 2012
This is essentially what I thought after seeing Deschamps' quotes, but it's nice to have some backing from a person who speaks the same language as the man being quoted. The generally-reliable-but-probably-not-perfect AFCAMDEN (link goes to a Sulia post, if that's a thing that you care about) claims outright that "Abou Diaby is OK," which is really nice. He also goes on to repeat the assertion that Arsene Wenger asked Deschamps to rest Diaby, which still makes a ton of sense.
Then Wenger himself spoke today.
Wenger about Diaby : "His muscular problem is very small. He has serious chance to be ready for the next game" #France #AFC
— Groover (@GrooverBlog) September 11, 2012
Arsene Wenger on Diaby injury (TF1): "It doesn't seem serious to me at all. He has a small chance of playing on Saturday."
— Tom Williams (@tomwfootball) September 11, 2012
"Serious chance" and "small chance" are two very different things. If I had my druthers, Diaby would not play this weekend, and would be replaced by someone like Francis Coquelin or Aaron Ramsey. Diaby's history is still a very real thing. But while it's certainly possible that Diaby's legitimately injured - we've seen "fake" injuries like this turn real all too fast, especially with him - it really looks like this was more a precautionary measure than anything.
So there's no need to hole up in a bunker or anything, at least not yet.