It’s bad news for Arsenal and Jack Wilshere in particular – who has suffered yet another setback through injury.
The England star missed the start of the season but was expected to be fit shortly after the international break, but Arsene Wenger has confirmed that despite not seeing the 23-year-old for a short period, he knows that Wilshere has suffered a setback and will not be ready to face Stoke City this weekend.
Speaking to the press on Thursday morning, Wenger confirmed the injury.
I have not seen him in the last two or three days.
He is progressing slowly and I can’t tell you much more about it. I will talk with my medical staff today.
It is slower than expected as I expected him to be back and available after the break but unfortunately he will not be available for Saturday.
He had a little setback and I have to know about it but I can’t tell you much more as I have no medical information.
The Arsenal boss then moved on to Danny Welbeck, who was confirmed by Roy Hodgson to be injured for ‘at least’ the next six months, but the Arsenal boss reported that Welbeck should be back during the Christmas period.
Another Gunner who was reported to have picked up an injury was Laurent Koscielny, who sat out France’s midweek victory over Serbia – but Wenger confirmed the 30-year-old trained and is fit to feature this weekend.
Koscielny is okay. He trained yesterday and he has no problem.
All the players who have been away on international duty have come back in good shape.We should have the same squad available.
Mertesacker is back in training as well, so we will have to decide how fit he is on Saturday.
Nobody came back (from international duty) injured.
