Premier League Round-Up

Liverpool duo head home

Liverpool's injured duo Martin Skrtel and Nabil El Zhar will fly home from the Far East on Thursday to have potentially serious injuries assessed in the UK.

Both players were injured in Wednesday's 1-1 friendly draw with Thailand in Bangkok... Central defender Skrtel has a hamstring problem while midfielder El Zhar damaged a knee ligament.

Skrtel's is potentially the most serious injury and it is feared he could miss the start of the season.

Neither Agger (9.17) or Carragher (9.20) are cheap, but if they're your nailed on starters they might be worth a look. Especially Agger who loves a shot from distance!

Elsewhere...

Injury blow for Kapo

Wigan midfielder Olivier Kapo is likely to miss the start of the Barclays Premier League campaign after damaging knee ligaments on the club's pre-season tour of Austria.

Wenger expects Eduardo to figure

Arsene Wenger has eased concerns over Eduardo's fitness by confirming the Arsenal striker is in line to make his pre-season bow in Monday's match at Szombathelyi Haladas.

Bouma boost for Villa

Villa, though, are optimistic the 31-year-old could feature in their first game of the Premier League, at home to Wigan on 15th August, after he was included in a 26-man squad for pre-season fixtures in Spain.

Tottenham captain King held on assault charge
Spurs sign Blades duo
Walker going back to Blades
Spurs face early season injury crisis

Tottenham Hotspur are facing a central defensive crisis for the start of the Premier League season after confirming a trio of injuries on Thursday.

Injury-plagued Jonathan Woodgate has a groin problem and has flown to the United States for treatment, captain Ledley King has not kicked a ball in pre-season and Michael Dawson has damaged his Achilles.

Assuming King will play (He never practices with the team anyway, so why should we expect him to play in pre-season? And these legal matters never seem to impact a player's availability.) the logical move is Corluka coming inside and Hutton or new boy Naughton at right back. If it is the latter, and rumours are that Hutton is going to Everton, he could be a nice early season pick-up in defence.

Birmingham net midfielder Kapo

Birmingham have followed up Thursday's signing of Garry O'Connor by buying France international Olivier Kapo from Juventus for £3million.O'Connor signed for £2.7million from Lokomotiv Moscow on Thursday and Blues boss Steve Bruce has continued a busy week by bolstering his midfield with 27-year-old Kapo.

The Ivory Coast-born player has agreed a three-year deal at St Andrews with an option for a further two years.

Kapo had interested the likes of Everton and Fulham, while Spanish clubs Real Betis and Real Mallorca were also thought to be interested.

Kapo represented his adopted country at under-21 level before making a senior debut in 2002.

He has scored three times in nine appearances for France to date.

After impressing during a stint at Ligue 1 side Auxerre, he moved to the Stadio delle Alpi but he never settled in Turin and spent spells on loan at Monaco and Levante - for whom he scored five times in 30 appearances last term.