Arsenal face wait on Walcott and Fàbregas

Arsenal FC will be without Theo Walcott for Sunday's English League Cup final while Cesc Fàbregas also suffered an injury in the 1-0 Premier League win against Stoke City FC.

Fàbregas was replaced by Andrey Arshavin after 14 minutes at the Arsenal Stadium and Walcott was carried off on a stretcher with 19 minutes remaining having fallen awkwardly under a challenge from Dean Whitehead.

"Walcott has an ankle sprain; I can't tell you how long he's out for, but for Sunday he is definitely out," said manager Arsène Wenger. "Fàbregas has a hamstring problem but we will assess that [on Thursday]; tonight it's impossible to say how serious it is."

Laurent Koscielny and Robin van Persie missed the Stoke game with back and hamstring issues respectively, the latter having not played since last week's 2-1 home win against FC Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg.

Arsenal travel to the Camp Nou for the return fixture of that tie on 8 March but take on Birmingham City FC in the League Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.