England's new captain Tony Adams could be out action for a month with injury and miss the opening World Cup qualifier against Germany on October 7th.
Arsenal yesterday moved swiftly to plug the hole in their defence, signing the Latvian central defender Igor Stepanovs for £1m sterling. Now Kevin Keegan must look at his options in case Adams fails to recover in time from the twisted ankle and hurt back he picked up in Saturday's friendly against France.
Adams was almost immediately ruled out of tomorrow's Premiership encounter with Desailly's Chelsea, and unless there is some miracle recovery, he will also miss Arsenal's opening Champions League fixture against Sparta Prague in the Czech Republic next Tuesday.
Adams has been forced to take long-term breaks in each of the past three seasons with ankle, back and hernia trouble.
Arsenal have secured a work permit for Stepanovs, who has won 37 caps for Latvia the most recent against Scotland at the weekend.
He joins from Skonto Riga, where he came up through the youth ranks before making his international debut at 19.
However, Wenger will be a brave man to throw Stepanovs into the potentially explosive Premiership match against Chelsea. Recent encounters have produced red cards for Arsenal's Patrick Vieira and Lee Dixon plus Chelsea's Frank Leboeuf.
And there is a feud still simmering between Martin Keown and Desailly, who clashed in the tunnel after the France-England game in Paris following an earlier flareup on the pitch.
The Arsenal manager is likely to opt for playing either Oleg Luzhny or Gilles Grimandi alongside Keown in the heart of the Arsenal defence.
It might not be greeted with the same level of reverence as the termination of Kenny Dalglish's role at Celtic - but the departure of chief executive Allan MacDonald is no less significant.
Just as the club was heading in the right direction, MacDonald has surprised the outside world by walking away after a rollercoaster 18 months in the east end of Glasgow.
MacDonald sat alongside new manager Martin O'Neill when the former Leicester boss was unveiled in June to proclaim that the club was moving along the right lines - but he had reportedly already decided to leave by then.
Thus, his exit stage left from Parkhead - or through the trap door as some fans would wish - is set to bring about another period of doubt within a club littered with previous uncertainties over the past few years.
