Arsene Wenger says he doesn’t know when Jack Wilshere will play again for Arsenal after the midfielder’s return was delayed again.
He was initially supposed to be back for the festive fixtures, but the manager ruled that out earlier this month and, after the Southampton game, he revealed he had no definitive time frame on when the England international might pull on the red and white shirt again.
“He will not be back before February, that’s for sure,” he said. “I said February but honestly I don’t know. I let him do his recovery. It’s going slowly.
“Once he goes again, goes outside to train, once he is back again into sharp, hard work physically, you count five or six weeks, so at the moment he is not there yet.
“It’s not Jack’s fault we lost at Southampton and anyway he cannot play against Bournemouth. We have two short-term worries and we want to respond.”
It’s bad news for Wilshere on a personal level, as whispers in November said he was ahead of schedule so that dreaded setback word has affected us again. His career has been blighted by injury and it’s now at a point where his participation could be considered a bonus, rather than a reliability.
It means that January recruitment is an absolute necessity, with at least one signing lined up as FC Basel’s Mohamed Elneny is set to join early next month.
Setback FC.
Now I fear for our current players especially Ramsey and Ozil. Because of our inability to rotate, the tiredness in this busy schedule will soon start reflecting in their performances and God forbid if any of these got injured. I was feeling positive until now thinking that at least we’ll have players back in January but the setbacks of welbeck and now wilshere has left me fearing for our season.
Fingers crossed.
We need to start rotating using the players we’ve got. I wanna see the Ox tonight, and Gibbs or Gabriel. Maybe we should start making som intelligent decisions when a game is won before full time. Give Özil and Giroud a breather by taking them off at 60 minutes if we can. And for gods sake get some players in January.
May I ask why our manager left Ozil on once we went 3 down. Poor management in our current predicament.
I love jack, i think hes a potentially great player. But does anyone feel he could do with a loan away from prem in less physical league for a few months once fit? Away from our training…if anything to get all this out of his mind and just enjoy playing again? If not, i understand why, but for how long do arsenal go through this again? At some point we have to realise how much quality we have sitting there injured, and just say fuck it…lets go buy someone with this quality that has a history of staying fit. Something… Read more »
That aint a bad idea. Problem is we need him ourself…. badly. But the idea is good. Somwhere in italy or france
Jack’s injury is vanpersisting so much I fear it might diabylise but Arsenal must give him time to heal. He was playing for us when he got injured.
Someone with a history of staying fit, like Welbeck 🙂
He will come back strong.
Lol
The Optimism is truly admirable.
Like A New Setback
This is so unfair, just a full year of playing football for jack isnt too much to ask…..come on.
If you look at his injury record, I think it’s fair to say you can never count on Wilshere to contribute to anything but a small portion of any given season. He’s a luxury player, not a reliable one.
He could be one of the greats. He’s shown flashes of his talent and potential for years now. But he keeps on getting injured. This season was supposed to be his for the taking. Hopefully he can get fit to help out with the business end, but he needs a few full seasons under his belt. Makes you wonder if his body was ready for the step up his talent lead to. Get well soon Jack! Let’s bounce back from the saints and do something special in 2016!
So sad. But he needs to get smarter about going into a friendly international with a high-risk, low-yield tackle. It wasn’t the last injury but I feel his problems seem to escalate from then 🙁
The trouble is that he’s a committed, passionate player. It’s what makes him such a fantastic player.
A blessing and a curse.
Jack Wilshere? I remember a guy called that. Used to play for Arsenal I think?
Such predictable news. So sad for him. Really hope we do more business in January than the single DM that we are hearing about.
Its so frustrating after watching the barca game where he ran rings around xavi and iniesta in their pomp
Fantastic player get well soon jack
He’ll make 5 appearances over the next 5 years (getting successive goals of season each year). Then end up going to Marseille as free agent.
So he doesn’t know when Wilshire, Wellbeck or Cazorla will be back.
Make that two midfielders and a striker in January please.
The Diaby ongoing injury debacle was sad but if the same happens to Jack it will be an utter travesty.
I was going to say that Jack is becoming the new Diaby. A few cameos a season – if we’re lucky.
Not much to say really. Not surprising… Just sad at this point
This is cruel now, just put him down Arsene. FFS.
A point certainly does arrive where you start to think we should treat our players like race horses.
On the down side most the current squad will be shot, on the plus side the offspring of the invisibles we put out to stud should be ready in a few years time…
*invincibles
At what point do we retrain him as a physio and move on?
Is everyone else scared to say it? Might our Jacky boy’s career be over?? 🙁
Does a new set back work in the opposite way to ‘it’s like a new signing’ when a player comes back?
This, Sanchez and Welbeck debacle makes it look like the medical team have no idea what they’re doing.
I know: NEVER… I just left a comment on metro in regards to this report …gona copy paste
I said some 18 months ago that wilshere’s career is finished… The guy had his ankles done by the ‘great defenders’ that play in BPL, FA didn’t give a damn about all the horrible tackles that he was subjected to. PGMOL keeps its monopoly on BPL refereeing and the same old story goes on, inept, clueless, unfit and incompetent referees are being sent to games every week, blatant bias or in many cases bias topped up with inability to make a basic decision, is all over the place, it doesn’t take much to figure out that systematic fouling is the… Read more »
Unfortunately this will always be the case while the league delivers on its promise of being the fastest, most physically competitive of the top leagues and the supporters continue to favor destroyer DM’s and players ‘with a bit of steel’ that like to ‘get stuck in’. We all enjoy a bit of the spectacle of that side of the game, and Jack obviously does too.
It is the second edge of the sword and it has landed its blow squarely on Jack’s ankles.
I usually consider it poor form to respond to ‘thumbs’ but reading my own comment have this to say: When I said we all enjoy the spectacle I mean fast, committed play- not Johnny Evans, the kid that jacked Jack this time, or the fucks that did Eduardo, Aaron, and Diaby. On that note, Wanyama will be in that group before long (see that shit tackle on Aaron?) so I hope we don’t touch him with a 39-1/2 foot pole. I don’t feel the referees have many redeeming qualities and I’m not one to defend them, but I do think… Read more »
not sure what you’re on about with the tackling. Go and watch a game from the 90’s or 80’s; the tackling was way more fierce and the refs let a hell of a lot more go. The league is faster, but I’d also say it’s softer now. Wilshere has bad ankles now from all the injuries; it will be chronic for the rest of his career. I would say the real problem was putting him in too young and playing him into the ground. I love Wenger, but I think we rushed Jack into the first team (or allowed him… Read more »
I’m now genuinely fearing for Jack’s career. Turns 24 soon, hopefully he becomes available in a couple of momths and can shake off these injury problems. Van Persie didn’t shake off his problems until he was 28-29.
If ozil gets injured we are done for the season. But then again he is playing like a guy who wants to compete with Ronaldo and Messi for ballon d’or so I hope the injury gods spare him for his and Arsenal’s sake.
setback!!! dont worry Arsenal will wait. more like kids waiting on santa to drop them goodies down the chimney. imo wilshere has ruined himself with that pointless aggressive style he’s vowed not to abandon. a player who cannot give you half a season since 2012 is worth replacing for an ambitious club
Stay strong and be strong Jack.
Stay away from the Diaby path
You can do it.
We believe in you.
3 long term injuries of welbeck, wilshere and rosicky meant more pressure on the likes of alexis, cazorla and coquelin. No surprise that exactly these players are injured for a considerable period. And these werent caused by “bad luck” as some may suggest, there was not one proper replacement for these players when they had to be taken off, hence worsening the extent of their injuries. This is a vicious cycle! By the time wilshere&co come back others will be run to the ground, then this goes on again. No one to blame but club and manager if we dont… Read more »
@Bbmc oh yes and don’t forget to mention the end of the world… What a doomsday sayer… Wake up… Injuries happen, no matter why, they do, assuming that Wenger didn’t buy its like assuming your mama didn’t get you a candy, well maybe there were factors that you are not aware of, ever think of that? All these people saying its wengers fault, so naive so narrow minded and ignorant. Yes the guy isn’t perfect in tactics and team selection but ffs, it’s Arsenal FC not arsene FC so wake up do your research on how a club the size… Read more »
Never really mention that i was gutted by southhamton result or anything ,not that fickle. Gutted for the players that get injured because there wasn’t enough cover. Injuries happen, like debuchy’s injury was unlucky, but what happened to alexis at norwich was due to lack of depth. lets not pretend everything in down to bad luck. Standing by club doesnt mean you you have to agree with every decision of the club, even Tim Stillman would agree. And please keep that generic ‘go support this or that club’ to yourself.
@Alex. You didn’t understand the comment of Bbmc before you jump to the defense of Arsene. It is most often people like you who make argument from the Wenger brigade boring because you turn to defend even on common sense. Of course, Arsene is an excellent manager and I wouldn’t like it if Arsenal kick his *arse out like the way it’s done elsewhere. Injuries are part of the game not only from an arsenal perspective. Does the manager and board know about this from Arsenal perspective? *I don’t know!* We have been very unlucky and everybody knows that but… Read more »
The Wenger Brigade? Honestly? So what are you, the Anti-Wenger Brigade? You’re the vocal minority. The ones who jump on the bad news articles but say nothing when things are good.
Not really. I appreciated that wenger has put up a team that is humble and hardworking. I guess each on of us here wants whats best for the club. To think the others opinion was to generate negativity can be excused becaused thats what we have become used to on social media.
But dont think there is a need to label someone anti wenger or whiny coz we all love that man and the club even when there is a difference in opinion.
I’ve said it on here previously, take that. No.10 shirt and hand it to Mesut.. It looks more like a retired shirt now.
Its gotten really annoying. Players like this give you that false sense of depth that Wenger ALWAYS fall for..
we need to sign 2 midfielders now
The biggest signing Arsenal need is a new medical team
Same old same old, unfortunately as much as we would love to see Wilshire a regular part of this team (mind goes back to that game against Barcelona)the chances this will happen are dwindling so we can’t rely on him as a regular and thus need to replacement in January – the replacement could be a loan of a promising player, a buying a quality player in the twilight of their career, but bring in someone who can do a decent job between now and the end of the season!!!
This totally sucks. Jack is a fantastic footballer – super quality in my opinion. But our 25 man squad needs to be accessible and such overloads of permanently injured players needs to be aboided
Very sad news for the lad.
Let’s continue to wait and hope but let’s also get some robust reinforcements pleeeese!
I love the Will.
He is even my gravatar ffs but please if we are going to rely on him to get back for us knowing very well his first game back could again be his last game of the season then we oughta just BUY BUY BUY. Something Arsene truly despises.
… Funny, sad, insecure people, thumbs up or thumbs down, it’s all the same for me, I’m not looking for approval from the other people, I simply express my opinion. @ Bbmc I never said you were, on a contrary, if you look at the structure of my comment it is clear that is a new paragraph and is just an afterthought, that was lost on you, or you chose to ignore it, I can live with that. Furthermore, being called and arsene defender makes me laugh, I’ve NEVER defended or attacked him or his decisions for that matter. having… Read more »
Arsenal must be the only job in the world that waits on and depends on unreliable employees, year after year.
At this rate expect Coquelin and Carzola to have setbacks infact everyone injured will have a setback….unless we have a new medical team
I really don’t think we can blame the medical team…
Surely we need two new midfielders now, as well as a forward!