ARSENE WENGER is ready to throw Samir Nasri back into action from the start of Wednesday’s Champions League rematch with Barcelona.
Nasri successfully came through a fitness test yesterday on the hamstring he pulled in last month’s FA Cup victory over Huddersfield.
He will be put through another test by Arsenal’s medical team in training today and, as long as he emerges unscathed, Wenger looks set to recall the influential France midfielder, one of the players of the season until his injury.
It will complete a remarkable recovery for Nasri, 23, who looked certain to miss the first leg of this last-16 tie after pulling up against League One Huddersfield.
It will also boost the Gunners’ confidence ahead of the clash who dumped them out last season, 6-3 on aggregate.
Theo Walcott, who scored in the 2-2 first-leg draw at the Emirates last year and set up
Nicklas Bendtner’s goal in a 4-1 defeat in the Nou Camp in the second game, has called the match tomorrow ‘the biggest I will ever play in’.
The winger, 21, said: ‘We’re looking forward to it, it’s going to be a great battle. It’s one of the games you want to play in and hopefully the result can be different from last year. I believe we can do much better than last season; we can’t do worse, to be honest.
‘It’s going to be an open game but these days when we lose the ball we try to get it back quicker. That’s what we did against Chelsea and Manchester City and hopefully we can take that into the Barcelona game, because it’s a massive one this season, the biggest one I’m going to play in.’
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