Jack Wilshere has been ruled out for approximately three months after undergoing surgery on the ankle he injured in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester United.
The England international’s left ankle did that unsightly thing where it bent in the wrong direction (we’re not doctors…but you know what we mean) as United defender Paddy McNair bounded into a late challenge that somehow went unpunished.
Wilshere’s injury means he’ll probably be out of action until March; a significant blow for a player who’d been improving in form in recent weeks, particularly for England with whom he’d won four consecutive Man of the Match awards.
In a statement on Instagram – presumably high on morphine or having just read some weird self-help book – Wilshere remarked:
“Ankle needed surgery in the end, went well thanks to the main man James Calder!
“Work hard for what you want because it won’t come to you without a fight. You have to be strong and courageous and know that you can do anything you put your mind to.
“If somebody puts you down or criticizes you, just keep on believing in yourself and turn it into something positive.”
Added to the apparently ‘serious’ calf injury sustained by Mikel Arteta yesterday and the continued absence of Mesut Ozil it means squad rotation is going to be that bit more difficult during the busy Christmas period.
Arseblog News wishes Jack all the best with his recovery. As we all know his history of ankle problems makes this particularly concerning.
Is Kallstrom available? :-/
he has back injury, but he is available .
pray for me gooners!!
Oh FFS
I knew straight away when i seen the tackle, that he would be out, it was a bad tackle you could see his ankle twist. I cannot mind what the commentators where saying at that time, but i remember Gary Neville annoyed me, more or less saying it wasnt that bad. I am gutted for Wilshere, he was having a good season, for club and country. But we have the likes of Ramsey and Cazorla who can step in. And hopefully perform well. Its crazy how many injuries we pick up. Something needs to be done about it, i understand… Read more »
Can’t be anything other than concerned about his career at this point.
He’s taken so much punishment to both ankles – they must just weaken every time he takes another hit or has another operation.
Let’s hope whenever he’s back, he comes back strong.
Arteta, Szcz. Sanogo, Wilshere…did I miss anyone from this week’s new injury list?
Walcott and Gnabry must be ready soon and hopefully Szcz just had a knock…
Also, Ox and Sanchez (both spectacular) will get more of the headlines, but how great was Gibbs yesterday!!!
Gibbs was my MoM
Gibbs, imo has been been consistantly on form, terrific all season. Roll on Gibbsy make it you best season yet and please stay injury free.
boo.
searching for silver linings, maybe Rambo will step up and find some form…. maybe even a chance we may see Diaby?? Or TR7 for that matter.
Diaby is currently out as well last I heard
He’s been out basically since 2007.
Now can Rosicky play?
Nope. Cazorla is back in form and Ox might fancy his chances in the middle too. Of course, we DO have a vacancy at DM…
Wait, since when?
Calculating… … …
horrible news – side note, where the hell is gnabry?
Still not fully back from his knee injury.
I love Jack’s attitude and loyalty (and we went to the same junior school) but am I the only one who’s not that upset when he doesn’t play?
No, you’re not.
I’m not going to say ‘blessing in disguise’ because we need the best squad we can going into a tough period in the season, but Wilshere is not effective for us when he plays. Plays often start with him…and then end with him.
I often feel we look a better team when he’s not on the field.
The far more worrying injury for me is Arteta. When he doesn’t play, our midfield looks creaky.
I agree about Arteta, but when Debuchy comes back it could be a good opportunity to try Chambers in the middle. I think he’s still a bit wild but I’d like to see what he can do.
And isn’t Wenger always saying he sees Ox playing through the middle eventually? Chambers-Oxlade-Chamberlain in the middle could be tasty.
Then Alexis, Walcott,and Santi/Podolski/Ozil with Giroud/Welbeck up top.
Obsolutely, spot on. I second both points. Come back real soon Mikel. M.A is the heart beat of the team, at least until Ozil comes back, if he ever does…..
Ozil come back I love you!
Get well soon, Jack. Gutted for this, but you are a strong man – you’ll surely come back strong and better.
It really puts that “head-nudge” in perspective. An awful challenge. I’m sure it wasn’t malicious but it was clumsy in the extreme. People are going to put it down to “fragile Arsenal players” but that would have injured anyone.
Such a shame. But the silver lining is it’s in a place where we have cover – Rosicky hasn’t even freaking played yet. Walcott, Gnabry, Welbeck, Podolski can fill in as wingers/wide men with Santi, Rambo, Rosicky, Ox in the middle.
On a separate note thought last night was our best performance of the season. It was controlled, yes, but we were pressing and harrying in the first half anytime we lost the ball. It was impressive. Lets keep the defensive solidarity and the attacking balance of last night, and we’ll do good.
This is the kind of defensive performance that took us to Champions League final in 2006 beating Juventus and Real to get there. Wenger knows you do get results this way. I guess, he needs to resolve the dilemma of picking between achievements and his sheer football philosophy.
The pitch is kryptonite
Why do you think Eboue had to leave
Totally agree with your last sentiment ArseblogHound. Let’s hope Jack does a Giroux and gets back earlier.
Up The Arse!
FFS FC.
Our injury list..
Schezny
Debuchy. Koscielny.
Arteta. Wilshere
Gnabry. Özil. Walcott.
.. .. Sanogo.
Add Mertesacker and Gibbs to that team and it would be a very good team.
You forgot Diaby and Ospina, you need 11 to play, let’s disregard positions.
I didn’t forget about Diaby and Ospina, i just didn’t add them, as 2 keepers wont be on the same team, and i wouldnt replace anyone in midfield with Diaby, and i know you need 11 players to field a team, hence why i mentioned, adding Mertesacker and gibbs to the team, as the team i mentioned needed a CB and LB i left a goalkeeper and midfielder out. 2 quality players tho, although i havent seen Diaby play in ages.
Isaac Hayden for CB… Only missing a left back now…
Please, please, dear Lord, don’t add Mertesacker & Gibbs to that team!
Lol i meant add them to the team, not the injury list :O
Chesney could play in defence. Show the others how it’s done. He’d add a bit of height and would be great at corners as long as he remembers to keep his hands away from the ball.
Cruyff turns in the box.
Szczesny
Debuchy, Diaby, Koscielny, Hayden
Arteta, Wilshere
Walcott, Ozil, Gnabry
Sanogo
Sub: Ospina
Couple of players out of position, but that’s par for the course. If that whole team was fit they’d challenge for the top four.
always thought Ramsey plays much better when Jack isn’t playing. same the other way around. i hope Ramsey can keep on playing like he did yesterday – balancing between defense and attack and not trying to score too hard. he’s much more involved in the game that way and you can see the team is better when he plays more balanced.
Thought we played worse against United when Wilshere went off though, one in the column against us having a Gerrard/Lampard situation, I feel.
Arsenal General Hospital up and running full power… No medical insurance needed, just an Arsenal players card… FFS… They should change business type from football to medicine.
Terrible news, but I guess it was inevitable. Get well soon Jack & see u soon.
feel bad for him, but people have to realize that we haven’t won a game in the prem this year with jack on the pitch. even some of the draws were secured after he was taken off. best performances of the season have been when jack’s had zero minutes. he has not had a good run of games with arsenal (with england yes) and the team plays better without him. i loved the passing and how we used the entire width of the pitch last night versus jack trying to dribble down the middle all the time and holding onto… Read more »
He has given us a lot of drive going forward but both Ramsey and him have been careless in defensive duties.
Its a question of balance.
It doesn’t mean he won’t improve. He is still very young.
This injury interruption won’t help though.
I really can’t be arsed to check, but that doesn’t sound like it’s true and I doubt anyone has actually taken the time to verify it.
If it is true, it’s quite interesting as he’s been a part of some of our best performances this season, I think it’s more a statistical freak pinpointing the frailties of the entire team rather than pointing at his quality in any meaningful way.
CRY(H) 2-1 W: Ramsey with a late winner after Jack was subbed off EVE(A) 2-2 D: Giroud with late goal to draw after Jack was subbed off LEI(A) 1-1 D: Jack played 0 minutes MCI(H) 2-2 D: Jack played 90 minutes AVL(A) 3-0 W: Jack played 13 minutes as a late sub TOT(H) 1-1 D: Ox with late goal to draw after Jack was subbed off CHE(A) 0-2 L: Jack played 82 minutes HUL(H) 2-2 D: Jack played 68 minutes SUN(A) 2-0 W: Jack played 0 minutes BUR(H) 3-0 W: Jack played 0 minutes SWA(A) 1-2 L: Jack played 12… Read more »
Huh. Well, there you go.
Have we really only won 2 premiership games all season? I knew we were bad this season but damn, that’s bad.
I still don’t buy that it’s particularly relevant to Jack, he’s had a few poor performances, a few good ones and plenty inbetween.
We’ve won four prem games. Palace, sunderland, burnley and villa.
The stats are skewed because the games where Jack hasn’t played were all against crap teams, where we’d expect to score more and concede less no matter who is on the field. This is a perfect example of using selectively presented statistics to mislead.
That’s also a stupid analysis because two of the three players Jack was subbed for were attacking, adventurous forward players (Ox and Giroud). Jack’s had a few decent games this season, and we all know he hasn’t fulfilled his potential yet, but he’s not to blame for losing games.
…hopefully not a case of the Diabytis It looks like its bed=coming a little chronic. Jack and Ramsey are critical to the way the team performs. They are the link player in the system. 4-4-1-1 IS 4-2-3-1. It depends where the link man places emphasis. If he goes forward to add numbers around the box, it is the former. If he sits back to present more caution next to the DM, it is the latter. We operate a flexible system difficult to get right but devastating if so. Similarly the second line of attacking mids in Ox, Santi and Alexis… Read more »
I reckon when you’re the victim of a dangerous tackle, it’s less about being injury prone…now all the other little niggles he tends to pick up, that’s a bit of a worry.
Diaby seems to get long term injuries that are not caused by contact. Jack not so much. The little niggles are possibly due to his bad biomechanics. The last 2 longer term injuries jack has had (the broken leg last year and this one) are the result of bad tackles, that can happen to anyone at any point.
All the naysayers prattling on about how we are lucky to face a Dortmund side lying 16th. Perhaps its reflection of the quality of their gaffer. Imagine if we were in 16th now in the league! Yet you hear voices for Klopp over Wenger. Simply daft. Then they prattle on about how Dortmund have nothing to play for in the CL. Last I check we have closed the gap to within 2 points. Considering their abject form, they may yet conspire to lose against Anderlecht even at home. Surely they need the win for morale just as much. Finally we… Read more »
It’s kinda their thing if they don’t say nay then they can’t claim to be naysayers.
Now the fans are going to say, yeah we beat klopp but we are poor in the league and we should still give Wenger the boot and hire Klopp.
Enjoy the bleeding moment.
Encourage the team to turn around.
😉
What was impressive yesterday was that the team seemed to use their collective brain at 2 nil. There were was none of the unnecessary risk taking. It was like the penny had dropped after the anderlecht and swansea games.
I have to say im more worried by artetas injury than jacks. Mainly because we players of equal quality to replace jack whereas now we are stuck playing flamini in every game until at least january
Wheelchair
Well unless diaby regains fitness or wenger starts to use rosicky more, its looking more and more likely that we might need a midfielder come jan. We’re being linked to the likes of moutinho and isco…don’t know what to make of that.
Oh yeah…we can blame ramsey all we want for not keeping things simple, but the same should also apply to jack. Sometimes he thinks he’s messi and goes on these runs instead of making a simple pass.
Great positivity by Jack. Definitely high on morphene or some post surgery pain killers. Thought santi stepped in nicely yesterday and had his best game for quite some time now. Jack will be missed but more performances like yesterday by Santi and Ramsey will minimize his lost especially with Ozil to come back. I too am more worried about Arteta injury. I really hope Flamini can turn his season around with what will be his next extended run in the side because based on this season and even 2nd half of last season, he seems to be a player on… Read more »
Just sell him already, we shouldn’t be keeping injury-prone players like Diaby and Wilshere when they spend more time off the pitch than on it. That might not be a politically-correct or even nice thing to say but you need to be ruthless to win trophies.
WHAT are they feeding those boys?!
He’ll be fit again just in time to play a friendly for England in March in which he will be stretchered off for the season.