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BLOW ... Kolo Toure is struck down with disease
ARSENAL were last night reeling from yet another blow — with news that central defender Kolo Toure has contracted MALARIA.
Toure, 27, picked up the disease at home in the Ivory Coast and is now a doubt for the start of the new Premier League campaign. Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has already lost Alex Hleb to Barcelona, Mathieu Flamini to Milan and Gilberto Silva to Panathanaikos. And his plans to bring in new faces has been interrupted with the news of Toure’s illness.
The player was taken to hospital while on the club’s mini pre-season tour of Austria and Hungary. After tests, he remained at the team hotel in Austria last night while the Gunners played out a 1-1 draw across the border against Szombathelyi Haladas with Theo Walcott on the scoresheet.
Toure was said to be in good spirits last night and was not believed to be too concerned about his illness. Malaria is extremely common in Africa. Yakubu, Celestine Babayaro and Lomana LuaLua have all returned to the Premier League over the last couple of years having contracted malaria.
Krisztian Kenesei opened the scoring for the home side last night. But Walcott gave his team-mates a finishing lesson by smashing home from the edge of the box after being put through by Nicklas Bendtner just before the break.
Edited by zocoss 23 Jul `08, 11:56AM
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