Abou Diaby Bio photos

Abou Diaby will be assessed over the weekend after suffering a slight thigh strain in a reserve match earlier this week.

The French midfielder was substituted during the game as a precaution and it remains uncertain when Arsene Wenger will have him available to return to first team action.

Meanwhile Wenger has admitted his first job this summer is to keep hold of Cesc Fabregas, Alex Hleb and Mathieu Flamini.

Arsenal's attempts to land the Premier League title and Champions League crown are over and fans are desperate for Wenger to splash the cash this summer and lure big names to the club.

But the French boss maintains his young squad does not need major surgery and insisted: "There is money but not as much as I read about because that is not true.

"However, with my financial package, the first thing I have to make sure is we keep the players we have. People forget that.

"My first target of the summer is to make sure what we have here stays here and after, if there is still money available, to buy players."

Diaby was born in Paris and joined the hometown club Paris Saint-Germain at age 13, despite being a Marseille supporter; he left the club two years later. He joined Auxerre in 2003 and was a member of the Auxerre team that won the national U-16 championship that year. His coach at the time, Christian Henna, described him as a "very good technician, elegant, quick". He developed into a tall, powerful midfielder. He signed as a professional at Auxerre, playing five matches in 2004-05 and five in the first half of 2005-06. His first match for Auxerre's first team came as a last-minute substitute against Rennes on August 14, 2004.





















He made his Arsenal début as a substitute in a 1-0 defeat to Everton on January 21, 2006. On April 1, Diaby came off the bench to score his first goal for Arsenal, in their 5-0 rout of Aston Villa, after being unselfishly set-up by fellow Arsenal newcomer Emmanuel Adebayor. A month later however, on 2006, Diaby suffered a broken and dislocated ankle caused by a reckless two-footed challenge by Sunderland's Dan Smith. As a result of the injury.
Diaby was out for eight months, and returned to competitive action on January 9, 2007, when he came on as a substitute for Theo Walcott in Arsenal's League Cup Quarter-Final against Liverpool