Wenger confirms Welbeck return
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Danny Welbeck will return to action for the under-21s on Friday.
The England international has been ruled out with injury for nine months and required surgery in the summer, further setting back his recovery, but looks to be ready to return to action soon.
While Welbeck will likely feature for the under-21s against Brighton and Hove Albion at London Colney on Friday, Wenger confirmed, as reported by the club’s official website, that he will not be available for competitive first-team action for a number of weeks, due to his lack of competitive game time.
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He is playing today with the under-21s, for one half at least. I believe that he needs to play two or three games before thinking about coming back into the first team. We can organise games internally without being official games and I think in the next three weeks he should be available. He has not played for 10 months so we need to be patient with him. He has good basic fitness but after it is competitive decision-making and he needs to get used to that again. We are a bit relieved because with such an injury, you never know how a player will come back. But he looks promising in training.
Welbeck could prove a key player in the Gunners’ Premier League title hopes, with the season now reaching the business end and Arsenal currently just five points off league leaders Leicester City, having dropped down to fourth place after failing to win in four games.
The Gunners will look to overturn their fortunes on Sunday afternoon, when they take on Eddie Howe’s impressive Bournemouth.