Marseille's Abou Diaby starts 1st league match since 2012-13 season

Abou Diaby will be in the starting XI for Marseille's trip to face Corsican's Bastia on Sunday.

This is not a belated April Fools' Day prank, but rather the return of one of Europe's most oft-injured footballers.

Diaby has been named to gaffer Michel's starting XI, and the former angular Arsenal player will slot in alongside friend and fellow reclamation project Lassana Diarra in a deep-lying midfield role.

VIDEO: Abou Diaby makes long-awaited return vs. Rennes

Sunday marks Diaby's second appearance of the season for the south coast side, with his first coming as a sub just before the international break in a 5-2 drubbing against Rennes at the Stade Velodrome.

A once-promising career has become football's punchline, with perpetual talk of Diaby's return to first-team football the stuff of legend more so than reality.

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Diaby's breakout season with Arsenal in 2009-10 - when the Paris-born tough-tackler made 29 Premier League appearances with six goals and three assists - seems an eternity away, and a return with a Marseille side struggling for an identity is far from an ideal situation for the 29-year-old.

The Cote d'Azur club sit 13th in the Ligue 1 table, six points above the drop zone with seven matches left. Marseille hasn't won any of its last seven league matches, and the defeat at home to Rennes on the other side of the international break was rock bottom in a season littered with low points.