Team News: Duo Ruled Out But Wenger Offers Positive Update On Ramsey & Coquelin

Arsenal will make the short trip across London to take on Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road on Wednesday night.

Ahead of the game, Arsene Wenger has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this morning and gave Arsenal.com a team news and injury update.

The boss confirmed that Aaron Ramsey is back in the squad after recovering from a hamstring injury. The Welshman has been on the sidelines since suffering the injury against Leicester City three weeks ago but he’ll now be back in contention to face QPR tomorrow.

Wenger also revealed that Francis Coquelin could yet play in the game despite breaking his nose at the weekend. The 23-year-old was forced off late on against Everton after a clash of heads with Olivier Giroud but the boss says there is no reason why he shouldn’t face QPR -although I’d expect he’ll wear a protective face mask if selected.

It will be a big boost if Coquelin can feature tomorrow as Mathieu Flamini has been ruled out for a further two games as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury that’s hampered him in recent weeks.

Wenger also confirmed that Jack Wilshere is still out for a ‘few days’ after undergoing a minor operation to remove two buttons from his ankle last week. The midfielder isn’t expected to be out for to long but will certainly sit out the FA Cup tie at Manchester United on Monday.

The boss told the clubs website:

on the team news…

Aaron Ramsey is back in the squad. From Sunday against Everton, I don’t think we lost anybody. We have to check Francis Coquelin with the medical people this morning in training to see whether he’ll be available or not, but there’s no obvious reason why he should not be available.

on Mathieu Flamini…

Mathieu Flamini is not far away but not close enough. I think he will miss the next two games.

on Jack Wilshere…

He’s doing well but it takes some time to heal the wound after the surgery. It will take him a few days.

on Wilshere’s availability for Man United game…

It will be too soon. I don’t set any dates, but what is for sure is that for Man United he will not be available.

on Ramsey needing to be strong mentally…

When you have a repetition of muscular injuries, in can put the handbrake on your body a little bit. To get rid of that is a psychological problem. I don’t think he suffers from that, looking at him in training. Certainly, you lose a bit of confidence in your body.

We head into the midweek action sitting third in the Premier League table so we’ll hope to at least maintain our one-point advantage over Manchester United with another victory over QPR tomorrow night.