Abou Diaby contract: Perennially-injured Arsenal midfielder set for pay-as-you-play deal

The Frenchman's current deal expires in the summer

Abou Diaby makes a pass during Arsenal's 2-1 League Cup defeat by Southampton in September, his only first-team appearance for the club this season (Getty)

Abou Diaby is set to be handed a pay-as you-play contract at Arsenal this summer, according to reports.

The French midfielder has played just 83 minutes of first-team football in the last two seasons after a cruel run of injuries.

The 28-year-old's current deal expires in the summer, with The Telegraph reporting that Arsenal will give Diaby the final chance to resurrect his career with a pay-as-you-play arrangement.

The deal will allow him to continue training at the club next season, if he is not able to prove his fitness before his contract runs out in the summer.

Diaby has impressed in recent Under-21 matches fixtures for the club this season, as he aims to build up his match fitness.

His run of injuries started after a horror from Sunderland's Dan Smith broke his ankle in 2006.

Back in November, Wenger said of Diaby: "He [Diaby] is a player that I have an enormous amount of respect for,” explained Wenger.

"Every time he comes back, he has to start from zero with another injury. He was a victim of competition.

"A footballer needs his ankle. He was destroyed by a bad tackle [by Dan Smith in May 2006 that saw Diaby suffer a fractured ankle] at Sunderland six or seven years ago which altered his ankle.

"He is not a fragile player. He was the victim of an assassin's tackle that went unpunished."