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Arsenal’s Ramsey set for long-term absence

Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey appeared to break his leg in a horrific challenge from Ryan Shawcross during his team’s 3-1 victory at Stoke and could need emergency surgery.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said after the Premier League match that Ramsey would be transferred to a hospital in London.

“We know it’s a bad injury — we don’t know how long he will be out but it’s certainly long term,” Wenger said. “I’m not very happy with the tackle. We know what we are expecting, a battle everywhere. But we have now lost three players (Eduardo da Silva and Abou Diaby) on horrendous tackles and I refuse to believe it’s always coincidence.

“I don’t believe it when you are hit as many times as we are. I just believe in what I see and when you see a player getting injured like that it’s not acceptable.”

Shawcross was sent off and left the pitch in tears after seeing the extent of Ramsey’s injury.

“We are not protected enough. We are sometimes victims,” Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas said.

But Shawcross insisted that there was “absolutely no malice in the challenge.”

“I am deeply upset that Aaron has suffered such a bad injury and my thoughts are with him,” Shawcross said. “I would like to send him my best wishes too for a speedy recovery.”

After the match, Shawcross was called up to the England squad for the first time with Fabio Capello naming at center back for Wednesday’s friendly against Egypt.

“Ryan Shawcross has no bad blood in him whatsoever,” Stoke manager Tony Pulis said. “There is no way in a million years he would ever go out and try and hurt someone.

“The lad was heartbroken at what has happened, you could see as he came off the pitch that he was in tears and he feels devastated that Aaron has been so badly injured.”

The game was level at 1-1 when the incident occurred but Arsenal scored a late penalty through Cesc Fabregas and an injury-time goal from Thomas Vermaelen.