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Former Arsenal midfielder Abou Diaby: Injury woes psychologically hurt

Former Arsenal midfielder Abou Diaby says that it hurts him to hear people talk about his poor injury record.

Diaby, 29, was released by the club last summer and has joined French Ligue 1 side Marseille where he has scored one goal in 14 appearances.

The midfielder was likened to Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira early in his career but suffered a reported 42 injuries from 2006-2015, making 182 appearances but only two in his last two seasons. And he admits that his appalling injury run hurt him psychologically too.

"They say I'm 'L'Homme de Verre'. It means that I'm made of glass," he told the Daily Mail. "It can be painful, on a psychological level. They don't know how much I give every day of my life to try and recover. But hey, what can I do? This is my life story."

Diaby admitted that he never fully recovered from a poor tackle from Sunderland's Dan Smith in 2006 which fractured and dislocated his ankle.

"Of course it is the moment that killed everything," he said. "That's where it all came from. It gave me a big restriction on my ankle and I overcompensated with other parts of my body. Before that, I'd never had a muscular injury, my lifestyle was good.

"But really, there is no resentment any more. I left it behind a long time ago. The only thing I wish is that it had happened later in my career. If it happened when I was 28, things might have been different. Between 19 and 27, I would have had time to progress, play every week and be the player I should have been."