Former Arsenal midfielder Abou Diaby slowly appears to be recovering from his injury hell after making his first start in more than three years for his new team Marseille.
Diaby was regarded as the next Patrick Vieira by Arsene Wenger. However, injuries have curtailed his career and the 29-year-old has played only a handful of games since the 2010-11 season. Arsenal were extremely patient with the midfielder for quite a while, but they decided not to renew his contract which came to an end in the summer. After spending almost a month trying to join a new club, Marseille accepted him into their squad.
After intense training, the player has made a major step in his attempts to get back on his feet. He made his first start for the club in the game against Corsica. Marseille manager Passi appears to have been sufficiently impressed with the fitness of the player. He gave Diaby a run out in the 5-2 defeat against Rennes at home. Now, the Frenchman has received a rare start but he was unable to prevent Marseille from losing the game 2-1. After the game, Diaby expressed his disappointment at losing the game. He said that Marseille will have to quickly forget the result while learning from the mistakes in order to win the next game.
“In light of the standings and our results — yes, that’s the case. But we’ll have to react quickly to try to get some points.There’s a huge amount of frustration because we lost today and we had come off a defeat too.We’re having difficulty winning matches. That’s a fact but we’ll have to react quickly,” said Diaby. It has been a season to forget for the French club, who are just six points above the relegation zone with four games left.