Personal injury news

Sol Campbell return ends in head injury at Fortress Fratton

England hopeful Sol Campbell made a dramatic return to first team action with Arsenal last night, ending the evening on the sidelines with broken nose and a head injury.

The powerful centre-back, who is desperate for a place in his country's squad for this summer's football World Cup, has been out of the team since he was substituted at half-time against West Ham on Feb 1st.

Psychological problems and a series of niggling personal injuries have forced the 31-year-old to watch from the stands for the last two months, but last night he was back and played well to stake a claim to be part of Sven-Göran Eriksson's World Cup plans.

His return to the first team came at a noisy Fratton Park against relegation-battlers Portsmouth, and a couple of stray elbows from Benjani Mwaruwari and Svetoslav Todorov left Campbell with a suspected broken nose and a cut eye, forcing him to be substituted minutes before the final whistle.

His Arsenal team-mates were lucky to come away from the game with a point and were never allowed to play the free-flowing football that has seen them progress to the semi-finals of the Champions League. The Portsmouth players, urged on by Fortress Fratton's fantastic legendary home crowd, put in some stern tackles and knocked the ball around in a way that belies their lowly league position.

A first-half Thierry Henry goal put the London club ahead, but in the second period Portsmouth looked increasingly threatening and scored a deserved equaliser from a header by Lomana LuaLua. Luckily for Arsenal, the dangerous Pompey striker then had to be substituted after his customary acrobatic somersaulting goal celebration left him with a painful ankle injury.

Despite several more chances, the home team's hard work failed to pay dividends and the game ended in a one-one draw, with Arsenal heading back up the A3 somewhat fortunate to get a point.

Discussing his defender's head injury, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said, "I don't know if the nose was broken. Neither do I know if it was deliberate by Todorov. I will have to look again.

Harry Redknapp, Portsmouth's wheeler-dealer boss, defended his player, commenting, "I didn't really see the incident, but Todorov is one of the most unaggressive players I know.

"He's not going to try to bash up Sol Campbell, is he?"