The joint has been bothering him for a while, and he's been playing through pain for several games. Playing like only he can, for the most part, but it caught up with him last night in the match against Man Utd and he was forced to come off after only 35 minutes, and at a psychologically bad time for Arsenal as Ruud van Nistelrooy had just opened the scoring.

Paddy should be getting the results today, and is not sounding particularly optimistic.

"I hurt the knee again when I landed heavily after a challenge. What I need is a rest to cure the problem. I will definitely not be able to play on Saturday and I am not optimistic for the rest of the season. I can just hope for the best."

We can also hope that a rest is all that is needed and, for the longer term, that regardless of what happens for the rest of the season he's able to get something of a rest over the summer.

And that Ray Parlour is fit to take on some of the covering duties.