Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva suffered an horrific broken leg in the opening minutes of the Premier League clash with Birmingham.

The Croatia international was challenged by Birmingham's Martin Taylor in the third minute of the game at St Andrews with the centre-back being shown an immediate red card by referee Mike Dean.

Eduardo's clearly distressed team-mates immediately signalled to the sidelines that urgent attention was required and the game was held up for seven minutes as he received treatment on the field.

The injury was deemed to be so serious that replays of the incident were not shown on television.

Photographs of the challenge and the immediate aftermath suggest the injury is similar to the break suffered by Manchester United forward Alan Smith during their FA Cup defeat at Liverpool in 2006.

Eduardo is now facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines and is certain to miss the remainder of this campaign and Croatia's Euro 2008 challenge in the summer.