Kirkland gets Wigan all-clear for Arsenal's visit

Chris Kirkland will keep goal for Wigan Athletic this evening when Arsenal visit the JJB Stadium despite requiring brain scans and a night in hospital after sustaining a head injury in Saturday's draw at Middlesbrough.

The England goalkeeper clashed inadvertently with his team-mate David Wright three minutes before the interval and, despite seeing out the half, required oxygen from attending paramedics and a neck brace on reaching the dressing room. The 25-year-old was initially taken to a local hospital and, having travelled back to the north-west, was transferred to a hospital nearer his home for the night.

"There was a delayed reaction with Chris and you can't take chances with head injuries," said the Wigan manager, Paul Jewell. "He went into shock back in the dressing room. It was quite a scary sight at the time, but I spoke to him an hour or so after the game and he'd had all the tests - the brain scans - and received the all-clear. It wasn't a Petr Cech situation but a slight concussion and he was in shock. He's trained since, he wants to play against Arsenal and we wouldn't ask him to play if he wasn't right."

Jewell faces Arsenal aware that the Latics have mustered only one point since they were promoted in 2005 in their 13 matches against the clubs who finished last season in the Premiership's top five. That sequence, broken only by a draw at Tottenham Hotspur, has seen 33 goals conceded into the bargain, but the manager remains realistic about improving that record against Arsenal.

"I spoke with Alan Curbishley last season and he told me Charlton treated it almost as a 30-game season," he said. "They almost wrote off the games against Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal. I'm never going to do that, but I understand where he's coming from. Anything you get from these matches is a bonus. That's not defeatist, that's just a fact.

"Arsenal are like a wounded animal at the moment. What they did to Reading [a 4-0 win at the Madejski Stadium in October] they can do to anyone. Their home form has surprised a few people, but they're in a new stadium and, on their day, they're as dangerous as any team in Europe. We have to be aware of that."

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