Arsenal fans could end up happy about this injury news by Sam P.
There was a little bit of good news for Arsenal fans on the injury front this week, with Arsene Wenger declaring that even though our Chilean international star Alexis Sanchez was not being included in the Arsenal squad for the pre-season tour of America, as reported by Metro, his ankle injury was actually not too bad.
The boss said, ‘Alexis will not go because he had an ankle injury.
‘That is not too bad but I will leave him behind.’
So there is still real hope that the fantastic forward will be running out onto the Emirates pitch when Liverpool come to north London to get our Premier League campaign underway in a little over two weeks. The chances of Per Mertesacker making that game, however, are zero and it looks like the German defender could miss a massive chunk of the season.
With the recent record Arsenal have had with injuries and with Danny Welbeck already ruled out long term, this was not what Wenger and the Arsenal fans wanted to hear, but there are two sides to every story and I think there might be some long term positives to come from this latest blow.
The first and most obvious would be if the Frenchman now goes into the transfer market and signs a big name top quality centre back and his words and about the BFG’s injury on the Arsenal website suggest that he might, a lot of Gooners may just be quite happy about Mertesacker’s knee problem.
Wenger said, “We have to look for an option to get a bit more experience. We will see some of our young centre backs on Thursday as well. With Per being out, we are a bit short on the experience front and we are looking to bring somebody in.”
That word experience is the big one for me there and hopefully Arsenal will not shirk from spending the money needed. On the other hand, Mertesacker being out for so long could be a good thing for our young centre backs Calum Chambers and Rob Holding. With Gabriel also missing the USA tour because of illness they should both get a lot of game time and that is the only way talented and promising players gain this valuable experience.
We might even get another Bellerin type breakthrough, or is that too much to ask?