Eduardo comeback halted by hamstring blow

Eduardo da Silva's hopes of making a UEFA Champions League comeback for Arsenal FC in Tuesday's home first knockout round fixture against AS Roma have been dashed by a hamstring injury.

Comeback
On Monday the 25-year-old Croatian international striker played his first competitive game since breaking his leg on 23 February 2008, scoring twice in a 67-minute appearance in Arsenal's 4-0 FA Cup fourth-round replay defeat of Cardiff City FC. However, Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger has revealed that the Brazilian-born forward picked up a knock just before his withdrawal, delaying Eduardo's potential UEFA Champions League and Premier League returns by a fortnight.

'What a nightmare'
"Eduardo is out for two weeks," Wenger told Arsenal TV online. "He picked up a hamstring injury two minutes before I took him off. What a nightmare. Nobody knows how it happened but I knew straight away after the game it would be a two-week job. It is nothing like he had before, but I do know that little setbacks like this are part of being nine months out. After that long out, nobody plays six months on the trot. It is impossible. But at the same time it is a blow, because he can score goals. He had shown that on Monday." Eduardo has until 11 March to recover if he is to feature in the second leg at Roma.