Rosicky on road to recovery after complex injury

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has voiced cautious optimism that Tomas Rosicky will be back in action before Christmas but admitted that the Czech midfielder's injury has been far more complicated to treat than first anticipated.

Rosicky, the captain of the Czech Republic's national team, missed the second half of last season and Euro 2008 after limping off in a Premier League match against Newcastle in January.

Eight months later, Wenger cannot say with any certainty when the 27-year-old will return and Czech media have started to speculate that his career may be over.

“He is not close to playing again and he has not had any real setback, but the evolution (of his injury) is very slow,” Wenger admitted.

“The recovery process is slower than we expected at the start. It doesn't look worrying but the delay is longer than expected.

“He had a re-attached tendon that was loose in his hamstring, and that demands a lot of time to re-coordinate the movements of the hamstring. That makes it very difficult to predict exactly one week more or less how much time it will take.

“But I am optimistic that before Christmas you will see him in a good shape.”

In contrast to Rosicky's woes, the rehabilitation of Croatian striker Eduardo follwing a horrific leg-break and ankle dislocation in February is going faster than expected, with Wenger confident he will be back in the first team by the end of the year.

Arsenal travel to Bolton on Saturday without a trio of injured Frenchmen, Smir Nasri, Mikael Silvestre and Abou Diaby.

Wenger is confident midfielder Nasri (knee) and defender Silvestre (muscular problem) will be ready for the match against Hull on September 27 while Diaby is likely to take a further week to recover from a thigh problem.

Arsenal's visit to the Reebok Stadium will be their third away trip in eight days after the 4-0 win at Blackburn last weekend and the 1-1 draw at Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League in midweek, which could tempt Wenger to rest the likes of Theo Walcott.

“There will be a little bit of rotation of course, because it was a very physical game in Kiev and we had to give absolutely everything,” Wenger said.

Bolton have taken four points from their first four matches this season and Saturday's clash with Arsenal is followed by an encounter with champions Manchester United.

Bolton boss Gary Megson knows the back-to-back encounters could leave his side in or close to the relegation zone, but he insists he is undaunted by the challenge.

“It's fantastic, it really is,” he said. “This is why the league is what it is, it is never easy. They are two of the big four teams coming up in the space of seven days and it's fantastic this club is playing football at this level.”

Megson is hoping to have record signing Johan Elmander back in action against Arsenal following the Sweden striker's month-long lay-off with a hamstring injury.