Sol Campbell remained concealed from further public scrutiny of his state of mind yesterday, leaving rumour to fill the vacuum left by the absence of any definitive statement on his condition from player or club.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who granted the centre-half five days' leave to recover from his humiliating half-time withdrawal against West Ham United, faced the media but was unwilling to explain what led him to describe his senior defender as "ill" but not injured earlier this week.

"I cannot tell you more than you know already," he said. "I haven't seen him since Wednesday and I have no news from him. I have not spoken to him and no one from the club has been in contact with him."

Asked if he felt his most experienced centre-half faced a serious problem, Wenger said: "It depends what the problem is."

Was it football-related?

"I don't know. I don't know what the problem is."

With Campbell's advisers declining to comment, having spent the day in consultation with lawyers, the cause of his loss of form and confidence remains as mysterious as when he stalked away from Highbury at half-time on Wednesday.

With his travails occupying the front pages and eclipsing news of Graeme Souness's departure from Newcastle on the back, conjecture inevitably filled the vacuum. Internet message boards disinterred ancient gossip about Campbell's private life, while media organisations, antennae twitching following Sven-Goran Eriksson's recent exposure, speculated about the content of the Sunday papers.

The speculation was stirred overnight by Robert Pires's observation that his team-mate faced a "big worry" in his private life, and while Wenger was not specific he repeated his assertion that a personal problem was the root of Campbell's professional crisis.

"You have to accept that every human being responds differently to problems," Wenger said. "The only thing we can do as a club is to support people when they need our help. You never know."

Colourful rumour and malicious gossip will inevitably follow those whose failings are exposed by the sporting spotlight, particularly if the individual is as enigmatic as Campbell. Expressing an interest in acting and fashion, as Campbell has, is certain to attract derision in an industry as blokeish as football.

His personal sensitivity has always contrasted with his uncompromising approach on the field, and in both departments the last two years have been the hardest of his life.

In 2004 his father died, and last year his brother John was imprisoned for for assaulting a fellow student who had accused Campbell of being gay. And the mother of his son denounced him in a Sunday newspaper for allegedly failing to support his son.