Arsene Wenger fears his talent may be kicked out of Premier League

Arsène Wenger believes that Arsenal’s great young talents are in danger of being kicked out of the game after it was confirmed that Aaron Ramsey will not play again this season.

The Arsenal manager will not change his footballing philosophy despite Ramsey, 19, suffering fractures to the tibia and fibula of his right leg after a tackle by Ryan Shawcross, the Stoke City defender.

Shawcross, dismissed for the first time in a career of 106 club games, left the Britannia Stadium in tears before the end of the match, only to hear an hour later that he had been called up by England. Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager, confirmed that Shawcross would be in a fit psychological state to join up.

Ramsey, the Wales midfield player, had surgery on Saturday night after being rushed to hospital. Play was held up for five minutes while he was tended to on the field and a number of players were visibly distressed.

Wenger said: “We had today in midfield Nasri, Fàbregas, Ramsey and Eboué. Up front Bendtner is 22 years old. What these guys do, at that age, is absolutely remarkable, but of course if you destroy them, they might not be football players.

“What is most terrible for me is Ramsey starts his career with a double [break] and you never know what kind of consequences this will have on his physical side of the game and his psychological side. It’s just scandalous.”

Wenger’s team are only three points behind Chelsea, the leaders, at the top of the Barclays Premier League and the Frenchman believes that Ramsey’s injury, two years to the week after Eduardo da Silva suffered a broken leg and dislocation of his ankle in a 2-2 draw away to Birmingham City, will galvanise his team’s title bid.

“It will be of course tight to the end, but it gives us one more reason to be strong mentally and to be united and to fight until the end and to do it for him,” Wenger said.

Shawcross said: “There was absolutely no malice in the challenge. I would never, ever go out to hurt a fellow professional. I am deeply upset that Aaron has suffered such a bad injury and my thoughts are with him. I would like to send him my best wishes for a speedy recovery.”