Martin Taylor believes Arsene Wenger's reaction to Eduardo da Silva's injury may have contributed to the volume and nature of the criticism he has received.

Birmingham defender Taylor broken the Arsenal striker's leg in a horror tackle early in last weekend's game and received a red card. In the aftermath of the match Arsenal boss Wenger called for Taylor to be banned for life, although he later retracted the comments.

The 28-year-old has received death threats, but figures within the game were quick to support him.

"Personally it (Wenger's words) hasn't changed my view because I know it was an accident," Taylor told The Independent in his first interview since the incident. "But it has affected the way people react to it. Arsene Wenger is one of the most highly-regarded managers in the game and people listen to what he says.

"They look at it in a different light because someone who is so learned has said something like that."

Taylor visited Eduardo in Selly Oak Hospital and insists nothing would give him greater pleasure than to see the Croatian 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 said. "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."

Eduardo's injury was so severe he faces around nine months out of the game, ruling him out of this summer's European Championships.

Taylor added: "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 and he was really glad to see me."

Taylor admitted 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.

"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," Taylor explained. "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."

He added: "It is a strange situation, looking in from the outside, watching the news, reading the newspapers. It feels like it is happening to someone else."