Arsene Wenger has revealed that Laurent Koscielny could be included in Arsenal’s squad for Saturday’s trip to Watford having spent the international break recovering from the hamstring problem picked up against Olympiacos.
The France international has spent the last 10 days at London Colney and will undergo a fitness test tomorrow. Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini, nursing muscular problems of their own, are also close to a return.
Speaking to Arsenal.com Wenger revealed, “Koscielny has a slight chance to be back on Saturday. He has a definite test tomorrow.
“Arteta and Flamini are back in full training. We need to see how they are and how confident they are, but we can’t rule it out.”
Having watched most of his squad jet off around the world after the impressive 3-0 win over Manchester United the boss was pleased to report that so far he’s not heard of any injuries being sustained.
“From the internationals we only have positive news. We are still waiting for Campbell, Alexis and Ospina to return, but they all texted back to say they are OK, so we just have to see if they were objective in their assessment.”
The break is looking too good for us (goals, RVP, injuries).
Hope we carry the form/luck into the Watford and Bayern matches.
Alexis, objective? haha
https://youtu.be/dhRUe-gz690
Thanks for that! 😀
Haha. I thought of the exact same scene when I read that line.
I don’t think we can rely on a text from Alexis to say he is fit! His leg could be dropping off and he would still say he could play.
‘Tis but a flesh wound!
People still text?
Another thing. Is anyone else amazed at how quickly (haha) football players can recover from injuries sometimes? I’m not even joking – 10 days with a hamstring strain and Koscielny is 50/50 it seems. Or at least not bad enough to rule him out. I’d love to know about all the state-of-the-art medical science the top teams use on their players (and I wish I had access to them too, as a runner).
You mean Gunner? 🙂
Absolutely! How come David Silva sprains his ankle and is out for a month, and when I sprained mine it took 4!
You need to improve your medical staff
Sorry to be a smart Alec my man, but there is not one set type of hamstring injury. You get different grades…3 in fact. Koschielny must have had a grade 1 or 2 (but more likely 1) which ruled him out meaning it’s relatively quick to recover from. It’s the grade 3s which are a bitch and could rule you out for months as it’s a proper tear.
Sorry…just had to say!!
good to know..! don’t be too apologetic! 🙂
Seems like a huge boost in recovery times compared to a few years ago. Now when people are put injured I’m not automatically assuming 3 months minimum
The Shad Factor?
Wonder what the text said that Alexis, Joel and Ospina received… “miss you, can’t wait for you to be home x x” To be fair, that’s pretty much what I think during every international bloody break!
I assume Wenger and Arsenal players have a WhatsApp group so that they can keep in touch when they go for international breaks too?
No, they have a hidden IRC channel #playerchat
You know I was having a some-what useless day. then I starting thinking of Arsenal and when we played last. Just that was enough to brighten my day. I mean how could the thoughts of the way we destroyed United not brighten anyone’s day! Even united fans were happy it ended only 3 nil.
Welcome back Arsenal. I really missed you.
They ask Alexis to “text” how he is!!
Easy to imagine how the text is going to look!
I would imagine the reply involved a bunch of emojis featuring smiley faces, footballs and shooting stars.
Hopefully our injury curse is showing signs of leaving us.With a bit of luck its heading man city’s way aguero and Silva both out now lets destroy Watford Saturday COYG!!!
Phew! That’s a sigh of relief; no injuries.
I am beginning to be more confident about this team – it was unthinkable some years ago for us to have a clean bill of health coming back from internationals.
Happy days! We can win the league this year; more signings or not…I believe.
Maybe we should employ the Peruvian shaman that put a curse on Alexis,
considering he scored two, assisted one and had a hand in a fourth.
Is that the mojo working?
That must have been some powerful curse, to limit Alexis to just the two goals and one assist. I’m sure he would have scored eight or ten without it.
am happy Alexis is back looking forward him scoring on Saturday. also humbled by kosceilny news I pitty Bayern next wk
“Having watched most of his squad jet off around the world after the impressive 3-0 win over Manchester United the boss was pleased to report that so far he’s not heard of any injuries being sustained.” The Interlull and lack of Arsenal news has been so damaging to the state of my brain cells which are programmed to handle emotions generated by football events, I realised that I had actually forgotten about Arsenal beating Man Utd 3-0. Result: instant and overpowering endorphine rush leading me to email my Man Utd supporting colleague a “fuck you” out of nowhere- feeling even… Read more »
Haha, well played!
The texts
Alexis: Yo Boss! I’m totally fit and ready to play this weekend 🙂
AW: Excellent news look forward to seeing you back xxx
Campbell: Boss! I am finally in good form and found my scoring boots! I’m 100% ready to play this weekend 🙂
AW: K.
“Seen”
Trusting Alexis texting he is not injured is just as probable as some of our wives trusting us that we went to the bar and watched the game but didn’t drink an ounce of alcohol
Hope everyone comes back fine. Let us begin the way we left. COYG!
I just imagine that Mr Wenger held his phone, anxiously checked every 5 seconds to see if there was text from his boys.
Alexis: I’m OK boss, honest, I’m not lying, for real….you believe right boss, right? (inserts Big grin Smiley )…….
am surprised and happy Koscielny is back
When you think about we have progressed a lot over the last few seasons. Stories like this used to give me a sinking and anxious feeling “please be fit Kos, please!!”, worrying that I’d end up having to watch us with Johann Djourou or Squillaci or Alex Song playing centre back. We’ve now got 2 solid reliable players in every position pretty much – they might not all be world beating back up players but as least I can trust them with a half decent performance.