Arsene Wenger says Alexis has suffered an abdominal strain and will not feature in the Gunners opening games of the new Premier League campaign.
The Chile international only returned to first team training last week after an extended break after participating in the Confederations Cup.
It now appears he’s picked up a problem in training meaning his pre-season preparations have suffered a setback.
“He has a little abdominal strain,” Wenger told his first press conference of the new season.
“He caught it on Sunday morning before coming to Wembley. He had a scan two days ago and he’s out for a while. I don’t know if it’s for two weeks or one more week. I think he will not play at Stoke [on 19 August].
“Always for us, Alexis Sanchez, is a loss. We have the other players prepared in pre-season and it can happen. I don’t think I would have included him on Friday night, I wouldn’t have started him.
“He’s been focused. Of course, when you have treatment on the medical bench, it’s not easy.”
The boss also confirmed that there are doubts over Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey, who both missed Sunday’s victory over Chelsea in the Community Shield, and Per Mertesacker, who suffered a bad cut above his eye in the game. Laurent Koscielny is suspended for two games due to the red card picked up on the final day of last season.
Francis Coquelin (ankle ligament damage) and Gabriel (knee) are also set to miss out.
We’ll go out on a limb and guess that those players whose futures at the club are in doubt will also miss out, that includes Jack Wilshere, Calum Chambers, Lucas Perez, Kieran Gibbs and Mathieu Debuchy.
Uh-oh.
I so hope that this isn’t the beginning…
how do you do it? within seconds of the conference finishing the article is up
A lot of guesswork.
i’m guessing.
Bingo!
You could write this article every week for Arsenal. Injuries injuries injuries key players out, threadbare defense, inflamed pubis. Etc. No need to listen to the actual press conference.
Write the article as the press conference is going
Yep, the season has well and truly started at Arsenal.
Give Reiss Nelson an outing
I think of Liam Neeson every time I see Reiss Nelsons name
I somehow think of rice crispies
I think of Reese’s Pieces.
I swear to lucifer I can’t take this anymore
‘Abdominal Strain’. Yeah, right. He’s gone.
He had scan, ok?
Yes Heavenly, because everything Arsene says is true.
The cynic in me agrees, however maybe also its a ploy from the club to decrease interest in him as clubs wont want to sign an injured player. Or….. maybe its actually an abdominal strain
Yep. Abdominal strain in an anagram for I’m going to play silly buggers until you sell me.
I thought it was a Chilean euphemism for onanism.
Cometh the hour.. Cometh the iwobi
Can we get a poo-o-meter on the reasons Sanchez gives for not turning up to work?
Abdominal Strains may affect your poo.
It’s expected.
How do we go from a Pre-Season treble with Le Coq kicking rugby balls in Australia and Ozil playing in a proper full pre-season to a borderline midfield freakin CRISIS just before the start of the Premier League?!!
Because we are THE Arsenal?
Because this is Wenger’s Arsenal
I don’t like this injury that will keep him out almost until the transfer window closes. Sounds weird. Hope I’m just being paranoid.
Is it an injury or “an injury”? My money is on the latter
I’m with you. If it were an abdominal strain Sanchez would want to go out there play. And then score.
In summary the only person that’s 100% confirmed as out is Sanchez and considering he didn’t have a proper pre-season, he shouldnt be in contention to start anyway. Ozil and Ramsey are doubts (i.e not confirmed)
So lets not get hysterical
Let’s face it, Ramsey is out. It’s his calf yet again. Yet another reason we should be signing a central midfielder. Ramsey and Santi won’t play a full season of games put together. We need more reliable players in the centre of the park.
One thing though, deciding to keep Sanchez in his final year this time, may mean we don’t have to pamper him as we did last season. So, this season, I expect that when he’s playing not so good, Wenger would take him off without too much hesitation and there may be a reluctance to let him start every single game even if he’s still slightly injured. Let’s be honest, there was a lot of pampering last season. Pampering, I like using that word, pampering, nice ring to it. Pampering
Did his Mum send him in with a note?
No note or kit, vest and pants friday night….;)
Something smells very fishy here …
We are the gunners indeed
Wenger: we need to trim the squad
Injury gods: chill, we got you son
Just another pre season , never ready for the start , it’s not like they don’t no when it is
Don’t worry about Ramsey and Ozil, we have Elneny and Iwobi!
Like a Chilean soap opera…
He’s had a bout of flu apparently,maybe he strained a muscle sneezing. Or maybe he dropped his wallet on floor and injured himself picking it up.
If Alexis can play with an ankle the size of the melon a little ab strain isn’t going to keep him out, his core is like a trunk for goodness sake, I don’t expect he’s straining it very easily especially not in training, all seems a little odd.
Yeah because you don’t use your core at all playing football… Ever had an abdominal strain?
I think the squad is more balanced now as almost all are hard-workers whereas Ozil, Sanchez, and Giroud haven’t been so committed to chasing back opposite defenders. I only don’t understand why Chambers is not considered as a CB option given that we have lots of injured players and Kos is not available as well…
Giroud is the most committed TEAM player out there.
I am not questioning him being a team player, only that he doesn’t chase and press opposite defenders.
Nonsense – take a look Friday.
Bye bye Sanchez. Hopefully to PSG and those 90 million rumours are true.
I can’t see anyone paying the money for him to leave.
Let him do his merry little dance til the transfer window shuts.
Arsene : Alexis stays.
Injury Gods : You sure?
Arsene : Yeah mate. I’m not changing my stance.
Injury Gods : So he’ll be an Arsenal player this season?
Arsene : I told you, yes.
Injury Gods : Cool then. Here you go. Abdominal Strain for him. Enjoy.
FFS.
By “abdominal strain” does Wenger really mean that Sanchez is sick to the stomach of Arsenal? When people ask me just why I hate Arsene Wenger so much it’s shit like this which is the reason. Everybody knows what’s really going on here: Sanchez wants out; the club are happy to sell him; and now it’s just a case of getting the maximum fee for a player on the last year of his contract. Despite all the “Sanchez is staying” bullshit, Alexis will be gone before this transfer window closes. Arsenal absolutely won’t allow a quality player to run down… Read more »
I missed you
He needed a good break, all that perpetual negativity and hatred can get tiresome…
I see Fatgooner is back. Obviously not been away at a retreat, learning the art of zen and contentment!
How about we save calling Arsene dishonest until AFTER Alexis gets sold, and his promises about Alexis staying prove wrong? Even then, we won’t know if he was being intentionally dishonest as we don’t know what goes on behind the scenes (eg with the board).
Why assume the worst? We may have sold Van Persie etc, but as Arsene says that was a different era.
For me the early exit of some players at Arsenal the better this club did better in previous seasons without them.let Wenger get players who have the club at heart.
Exactly, he refuses to delegate so we go from having lots to get done to hardly anything getting done. His stubbiness & egotism is holding us back….see his contract situation last year as evidence. It’s all about him and his desperation to stay in power and I’m sick of it.
He’s so stubby
Fair enough, the price I pay for messaging on a phone in the rain!
Any chance the message board can be upgraded so you can edit previous posts?
Been a good pre-season so far. Your positive attitude has brightened up my poo. You can’t polish a turd they say but yes, Wengers very good at that. He deserves more credit than you. If he keeps this squad together, but loses Alexis to PSG for 90 mil but adds say a Lemar then great imo. That would be three world class signings this summer. A player becomes to big for Arsenal not good. Creates this bollox we’ve had all last season/summer. Lacazettes the boy now anyway. You don’t even know what Wenger’s been through. Earns his money more than… Read more »
Fatgooner reckons alexis is going… so he is 100% staying then. Phew I was worried for a minute there
ppl hate on FatGooner but he makes some valid points
We seem to be forever trying to sign Lemar..Dick Law is incompetent!
Monaco are flush with cash, flogged off half their team already, and have no need to sell a player only increasing in value. Dick Law can’t change that.
They can move on to other targets if monaco is not willing to sell
We could have had him 1-2 mths ago, City took Silva for what appears now very cheap 42.5M and Lemar is not.yet on Silva’s level. But let’s forget those facts, that we were stingy as we always are with low and offers and too slow to offer something realistic.
I think the key reason why that is is because speculating about something you know very very little and then reaching a fixed and never-shifting conclusion based on that speculation is pretty stupid. But getting persistently angry about that conclusion and with others who might hold a different view of what little knowledge we have is complete tw*ttishness.
And reaching a definite conclusion on Dick Law’s overall competence when most people don’t even know what’s in his in job description is equally silly.
You are exactly right and telling it straight. Some can’t handle that.
As I said above, he’s gone
Welcome back, FG. You bring up some unsettling points, although I can’t see a practical reason for Arsene to say that Alexis will be sold if that’s truly the board’s wish: our tender feelings aren’t worth possibly 10s of millions of pounds. And this certainly raises the question about Alexis’s commitment if he is forced to stay. Could care less about the Ox, tbh, and I can’t see Özil extending if Wenger will only be here one more year.
I have to laugh when I hear the phrase – “they lie to us so that people renew their season tickets” There is a fairly lengthy waiting list for a season ticket at our club. If anything that possibly makes our board a little complacent but lying to con people into buying a season ticket? Absolute shite son. Sorry. Absolute tabloid level shite. If they are lying it is for one reason only – to play hardball with anyone who wants to buy Sanchez. And you would do exactly the same in their position. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t. We… Read more »
Unless Song is a makeweight when we sell Alexis to FC Rubin Kazan.
/yes, had to google it
Wenger ought to be telling the world what’s going on. It’s not as though there’s any money involved and stating that he’s not for sale’s going to affect the price. Barring that, the least he could do is personally call each of the club’s ‘loyal’ and intelligent supporters, such as yourself and that mob on Arsenal Fan TV, to fully explain his actions. After all, where the fuck would Arsenal Football Club be without the like so you?
Incredibly insulting comment.to Fat from you Art, just because he does not think positively about Wenger.
You need to get out more mate.
You need to get out of Wenger’s a$$hole.
Mmmm, did you go to Oxford or Cambridge?
Fat, completely agree with you on all points, same things were crossing my mind. This is sh1te from Wenger and he never meant to keep really, I don’t believe a word he says for some time now. Also, on dross – clubs in England.are full of TV money and buying players left and right. They are giving them high wages also. So I cannot believe that we cannot find interested clubs to take on any of Debuchy, Gibbs, Jenks etc. Especially as some are English so that’s a premium. Just a full on neglect from our dictator-suffering-from-early-dementia manager. Also, selling… Read more »
You crack me up Fats … welcome back to Arsenal world. I’ve just named my new racehorse Alexis Rocket in NZ (true story). He canna leave can he? Bring Lemar in, and Chris Wood of Leeds. And Virgil VD as I and many others suggested two years ago wen he was at Keltic. Lets do Leicester and start with a bang.
I thought we lack two top players in order to think of challenging for the PL; but without those plus these news things don’t look great…
LOL… Does he have transferitis as well?
Hurray! Maybe the blind will see how well we play with 11 TEAM players instead of 10 Arsenal FC and 1 sanchez fc. COYG
Shittalk fc
Riight…
This is a really counter productive way of addressing the criticism over the last 10 years that Arsenal is more concerned with the business side of things… There is no excuse to have the two marquee players entering the last year of their contract and a virtual forest of deadwood still on the books. Considering how little gratitude our players have a habit of showing the club I hope the club is equally ruthless when the players start pushing for time in the lead up to the World Cup.
We have been trying to extend their contracts for about a year.
But here is the thing – you cannot make someone sign a contract if they don’t want to. Simple as that.
We’re all armchair experts saying we would do this and do that when we have approx 10% of all the facts involved including the financial impact of the size of contracts Ozil,Sanchez and other want.
I could do it with 5% of the facts. And I’d even do it for 1/2 million £ a year unlike some.
Talking of the deadwood: What work exactly does the management do all season long? Watch the Arsenal play?
In hindsight might be a good thing for Alexis to be forced to take a couple of weeks off with the hectic schedule he’s had. He certainly is a loss, but Welbeck and Iwobi have been playing very well in those spots behind the Striker and certainly give us a different dynamic there. Same with Ramsey, no need to rush him back with his history of muscle issues especially with how well Kolsanic and Xhaka have been playing together. Finally, it’s ironic that center defender is one of our deepest positions and here we are at the opener with the… Read more »
In hindsight might be a good thing for Alexis to be forced to take a couple of weeks off with the hectic schedule he’s had. He certainly is a loss, but Welbeck and Iwobi have been playing very well in those spots behind the Striker and certainly give us a different dynamic there. Same with Ramsey, no need to rush him back with his history of muscle issues especially with how well Kolsanic and Xhaka have been playing together. Finally, it’s ironic that center defender is one of our deepest positions and here we are at the opener with the… Read more »
Un freaking believable
How do we have so many players out already?
I know there are a couple of long term injuries in there but, this is already looking bad.
If this turns out to be an “Injury” I am done with Arsene. Why can’t he just be honest to the fans. There is absolutely no shame in saying he wants Alexis to stay and has tried everything but his mind is made up.
Trying to decipher Arsene’s press conference requires decryption tools I don’t possess
Maybe you’re just reading too much into it and a player just back from his summer break has picked up a little strain 😉
Apparently Cesc & RvP too had injuries when their future was in doubt.
Pftt “abdominal strain”. Sanchez could quarry the marble for and then sculpt a perfect replica of Michelangelo’s David using only his abdominals.
Sanchez – Boss?
Boss – Yes?
Sanchez – I can’t play because my tummy hurts!
Boss – OK, sell him!
That’s why arsene should sign mahrez, expert big player.
I’d be more likely to believe this, if Wenger said Sanchez’s left leg fell off and it will be a couple of weeks until Alexi can grow a new one out of sheer will.