The Premier League season hasn’t even begun yet but Arsenal have sustained their first new injury setback. Jack Wilshere took a knock on his ankle in the last training session before the Community Shield win over Chelsea, which could be related to the ankle injury which made him miss five months of last season.
Wenger was asked after the game why Wilshere wasn’t in the squad, and he replied: “He couldn’t take part in the game today because of an ankle problem he sustained yesterday. It happened at the training ground.
“We don’t think it’s bad at all but I haven’t been told whether it will be two days or five days. I don’t know how long he will not be available for. It’s a matter of days.”
We are used to Arsene underestimating the length of any injury layoff, so it is little surprise that an Arsenal “insider” has told ESPN that Jack is nearly certain to miss the first two games of the season against West Ham and Crystal Palace, and will be lucky even to make the Liverpool game on Aug 24th.
We all know Wenger does not like rushing players back even if they recover quickly, especially with recurring injuries, so Wilshere will probably not appear on the squad sheet until after England’s Euro 2016 qualification doubleheader against San Marino and Switzerland on Sept. 5 and 8.
Jack had surgery on his ankle last November and then a related procedure in February, but he has been training hard all summer to get ready for an injury-free season, so this latest problem could be a very depressing time for the 23 year-old.
We wish him well and hope he can get a run of games under his belt when he returns.
Danny Welbeck is another player that was supposed to be out for a short while after he last played in April, but we are still waiting for him to return. Wenger said about the ex-Man United player this weekend: “He is supposed to start to go outside and run again this weekend and if that is positive in the next three weeks he will be available. He will be short for the start of the season in two weeks, but three weeks should be all right.”
Matthieu Flamini gained a knock on his ankle in the first pre-season match and hasn’t been seen since, despite Wenger saying he would be back quickly, while Thomas Rosicky sustained a knee problem while playing for the Czech Republic back in June and is still yet to return to training.
Just when we thought our injury problems were behind us, they come back in earnest….