Gallas hurt his thigh in training on November 20th and at first it was said to be a minor injury that'd not keep him out Arsene Wenger said in his press conference today,

"I was worried for a while because his injury took much longer to recover than we expected." Too bloody right. It's good to see that they've revised the estimate of Robin van Persie's return in line with the actual likelihood.

According to the the official injury news page (today), Robin "travelled to Holland on February 26 to have surgery on his right foot." Good trick! He'll back in no time if he keeps jumping through time like that.

The return of Gallas leaves us with just one major injury apart from Robin - Emmanuel Eboue whose ankle problem still hasn't cleared up and for whom we don't have an estimated return date. Matthieu Flamini has a minor ankle thingy which kept him out on Wednesday but we don't know if he'll be back. Johan Djourou is out with a minor knee injury picked up in the amazing replay win at Bolton on Wednesday.

Alexander Hleb has a bit of cold and gets a bit of a rest, following his storming comeback at the Reebok. It looked like he was feeling it a bit towards the end of his 77 minutes and Arsene Wenger said at the time that he'd played Hleb for longer than planned, so chances are he'd have been rested anyway. I guess Freddie Ljungberg played longer than planned too, having been brought on for 13 minutes which turned in 43 or more. He'll surely be in the squad but may again not be used for the full 90 minutes.

That's because Le Boss says he'll shuffle the pack a bit tomorrow, what with a Champs League tie coming up in Eindhoven on Tuesday. In that game there's a good chance we'll play 4-5-1, so the availability of midfielders like Hleb and Freddie could be crucial. I wouldn't be surprised to see Theo Walcott back on the right wing tomorrow, and maybe Jeremie Aliadiere or Denilson used on the left to give Tomas Rosicky a break.

Up front Emmanuel Adebayor is due for a rest too but perhaps a 4-5-1 on Tuesday would see him starting on the bench then anyway, so maybe he'll start. Thierry Henry will probably be back, not rested 2 games in a row, surely? Wenger has confirmed that he's in the squad. Perhaps Julio Baptista or Aliadiere will start with him. It's anyone's guess, but the way Wenger bigged up Aliadiere today makes me think maybe it'll be him.

Wenger also confirms that Cesc Fabregas is in the squad, but maybe it's time for Gilberto to sit one out leaving room for Abou Diaby.

In defence Gallas is expected to start, most likely with Kolo Toure but perhaps with Philippe Senderos. This is the hardest line-up to call for ages but I'll stick my neck out with this:

        Almunia
  Hoyte Gallas Toure Traore
Walcott Cesc Gilberto Denilson
     Henry Aliadiere

They already had Andre Ooijer (broken leg), Robbie Savage (broken leg) and Steven Reid out long-term, and this is added to by David Dunn (dead leg on Wednesday) Morten Gamsy Pedersen (hamstring) and striker Benni McCarthy who has an achilles problem. But Matt Derbyshire returns from a thigh problem and both Christopher Samba and Bruno Berner are available again having been ineligible for european duty. Mark Hughes has said that Tugay will be rested. Without him and Savage, Rovers may have less bite than usual. Former Gunner David Bentley will be up for it, no doubt. He scored a cracker against Leverkusen.