Bentley may rejoin Arsenal
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Your support makes all the difference.Nigel Worthington, the Norwich City manager, is to open talks with his Arsenal counterpart, Arsène Wenger, over whether the Gunners will end David Bentley's season-long loan deal early after the midfielder was ruled out for three months with a knee injury.
Worthington is down to 17 fit professionals after the England Under-21 international hobbled out of the FA Cup defeat at West Ham on Saturday. A scan has revealed that Bentley has a severe tear of his medial ligament and can expect up to 12 weeks on the sidelines.
Given the recuperation time needed to regain match fitness, the 20-year-old would only be expected to be available for the final couple of matches of the season. Worthington said he will speak to Wenger to see if an arrangement can be reached over Bentley, which would then allow Norwich to bring in another loan signing before the transfer window closes.
"I'm hopeful something can be sorted out," Worthington said. "It will be a coming together of Norwich City, Arsenal and David himself to see what happens next."
Edu's future should be decided next week as the Arsenal midfielder decides whether to sign a new deal or be sold.
Arsenal have shown no signs of increasing their original offer to the Brazilian international, who is out of contract at the end of this season. However, the 26-year-old is still looking for more than the reported five-year deal on offer of £30,000 a week. Valencia and Barcelona are said to be interested in signing him.
Wenger is now looking for a final decision before the end of the January transfer window as, if Edu is not staying at Highbury, he will look to sell the midfielder immediately and recruit a replacement. Time is therefore running out for Edu to make a final decision and Wenger reported no significant progress from a meeting six days ago.
Sol Campbell has recovered from injury in time to join Fredrik Ljungberg and Ashley Cole in returning to the Arsenal side at Bolton this weekend.
Campbell twisted his ankle at Charlton on New Year's Day and has missed the past two games. In his absence, Arsenal were forced to cope with a makeshift centre-back pairing of Kolo Touré and Philippe Senderos, who made his Premiership debut in the 1-1 draw against Manchester City.
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