TOMAS ROSICKY has been declared fit to face Portsmouth tonight by Arsene Wenger.
The Czech Republic midfielder suffered a groin injury during the 2-0 home win over Stoke on December 5 and has been out of action ever since. But he could feature for the Gunners when they travel to Fratton Park to take on the team propping up the Premier League table at the halfway stage of the season.
The news is not so good for forward Nicklas Bendtner, who had hoped to return to action early in the new year. However, he picked up a groin injury after a hernia operation and will remain on the sidelines until mid-January, according to Wenger.
"Rosicky I would say will be fit for Portsmouth or for West Ham [in the FA Cup on Sunday]. But Bendtner is three weeks away from returning," said the Frenchman.
"He had a hernia surgery and should be back from that already but he had a groin problem as well.
"The groin problem looks to last longer so they [the medical staff] say to me it will be three weeks."
The extent of the injury to Cesc Fabregas - who suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury after coming on to score two goals against Aston Villa at the weekend - has yet to be assessed, although he will certainly miss the trip to Portsmouth and is likely to be out of Sunday's FA Cup third round tie against West Ham at Upton Park.
Wenger revealed that if the midfielder had suffered the same injury he would be out of action for up to three weeks, although if there was just scar tissue damage the Spaniard would be missing for only a few days.
Denilson is also likely to miss the Portsmouth game after injuring his back against Villa, which is the same injury that forced him to miss almost two months of the season.
Gael Clichy, Robin van Persie, Johan Djourou and Kieran Gibbs remain on the treatment table.
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