Shearer expects Eduardo to recover

ALAN SHEARER is confident Arsenal striker Eduardo can return from his horrific injury a better player.

Eduardo suffered a fractured leg and dislocated ankle following a tackle by Birmingham’s Martin Taylor at the weekend, and he faces nine months out after being released from hospital yesterday.

“It’s a long, long road for him but there is no reason why he can’t come back fitter and better than ever,” said the former England striker, who suffered a serious ankle injury himself when at Newcastle.

Shearer said: “He’s still young, he was finding his way in the Premier League so it’s a great shame for him. Everyone wishes him well.

“There will be some long days ahead but he’ll get there because he has a great team around him.

‘‘He’ll have all the right treatment at Arsenal.

“When you come back there is a little apprehension but it’s about getting your confidence back to believe in your body again and that you belong on a football pitch.

“After that it’s a matter of forgetting about it and getting on with it.”

The Gunners yesterday confirmed Eduardo has been released in a statement on their website, arsenal.com.

“The club can confirm that Eduardo has now been released from hospital, where he had been since sustaining his injury against Birmingham City.

“Eduardo would like to once again thank everyone for the overwhelming messages of support he has received.”

The Croatia striker’s national team boss Slaven Bilic said he did not blame Taylor for the injury.

“The injury made the tackle look bad,” Bilic said.

“You see many tackles like that, almost every week.

“That’s perhaps wrong for football but I’m sure Martin Taylor is a sportsman and he wanted to play the ball.

“On another occasion Eduardo could have received a worse tackle and got away without injury – everything went wrong but Eduardo knows Taylor didn’t do it deliberately.”