Arsenal's physio, Colin Lewin, says Cesc Fábregas "will comfortably make the World Cup" and that Robin van Persie will return to training with the club imminently.

"Cesc is doing well. He is likely to be out for the rest of the season with a hairline crack of his fibula," Lewin told arsenal.com. "If everything goes well he will comfortably make the World Cup and we will be constantly monitoring him. The injury was certainly as a result of the tackle by Carlos Puyol at the end of the Barcelona game.

"There were some ill-informed media reports that the fracture was sustained before the Barcelona game and those reports, put simply, were untrue. He suffered heavy bruising in the Birmingham City game but to suggest that someone can run around for 85 minutes against Barcelona with a fractured fibula is just farcical."

Meanwhile, Arsenal's attacking options for the Premier League run-in are likely to be bolstered by the return of Van Persie, who has not played since suffering an ankle injury on international duty with Holland in November.

"Robin will be joining the squad for full training imminently," said Lewin. "That is a big boost for the club and to see Johan [Djourou] and Kieran [Gibbs] training with the team in the next fortnight will give everyone a big lift."