Taylor - I meant him no harm

Blues defender hoping Eduardo makes full recovery

By Lewis Rutledge   Last updated: 29th February 2008

Taylor - I meant him no harm

Taylor: Longs for Eduardo return

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Martin Taylor has broken his silence over the tackle on Eduardo da Silva that left the Arsenal striker with a broken leg.

Taylor was sent off after mis-timing a challenge in the early stages of Birmingham's 2-2 draw with The Gunners on Saturday.

The Blues defender has stressed that he did not intend to hurt the Croatian, and has revealed details of his visit to see Eduardo in hospital.

Taylor also insists nothing would give him greater pleasure than to see Eduardo back scoring goals for Arsenal.

"I will be really happy on the day when I see he is back in the Arsenal and

Croatia line-up and when he is scoring goals again," Taylor told The Independent.

"The injury was terrible enough. When he gets back to fitness and he puts the ball in the net for Arsenal for the first time, we will all feel much better.

"People will be able to see that accidents like these are the nature of football and you can recover from it.

"I went to see him on Saturday but, unfortunately, he was still recovering from an operation, so first thing on Sunday morning I went to the hospital."

Worried

Taylor admits he was worried how the striker would react to his visit, especially as he had heard the magnitude of injuries such as Eduardo's only start to dawn on the patient after they undergo surgery.

He explained: "I was mindful of this and I thought maybe he wouldn't want to see me, which would have been fair enough because of the trauma.

"Although there was a language barrier, I just said that I didn't mean him any harm at all and that I hoped he made a quick recovery.

"He took it on board and nodded. I was just really glad we could communicate.

"He is obviously a really strong man. Since then, I have read in the papers that he would be happy for me to visit him. That's something I'd like to do."