Arsenal Team News: Wenger Reveals Huge Injury Boost + Sanchez Could Face West Ham

Arsenal kick off the new Premier League season with a home clash against London rivals West Ham at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon.

Ahead of the game, Arsene Wenger has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference today and he gave an update on the fitness of Jack Wilshere and Alexis Sanchez.

Wilshere suffered a fresh ankle injury in training last weekend and the club confirmed on Arsenal.com yesterday that the midfielder had fractured his left fibula.

No official word was given at the time on Wilshere’s recovery period but the Mirror were one several newspapers who claimed that the 23-year-old was facing up to 8 weeks on the sidelines.

However, Wenger claims today that the club received some positive news on Thursday which indicated that Wilshere is now expected to be back in action much quicker than first thought.

The boss revealed that Jack will be in a protective boot for just two weeks and should be able to return to training as soon as he takes it off, with the Guardian claiming he should be back in contention inside four weeks.

Arsene is quoted as saying by the newspaper:

“It’s bad luck, purely accidental. It’s a hairline crack in his fibula. It’s in the region where they took the screws off so I believe it’s a straightforward bone injury, which means there’s no surprise there.

He just needs time to heal. The news he got yesterday was that it could be much shorter than expected because he’s two weeks in a boot and then maybe after that he can practice straight away again.

“You never get used to that. When you play football you never get used to your body letting you down. The positive thing in this injury is that it’s not a recurrence of one of his former injuries.

The positive news with Jack is that the history doesn’t play a big part in his head when he come back. He plays with the same confidence and desire as before. It’s difficult. We have all been at that age when you love to play football, and when you cannot get up in the morning and play it’s mentally difficult.”

If this latest prognosis is accurate, then it will be a major boost as it means Wilshere should miss just four fixtures and be available for the Stoke clash after the international break on September 12th.

This is a lot more positive than the time line we were looking at a few days ago when there was talk the midfielder could be facing another three months out if he needed surgery, so hopefully Jack can recover quickly and get his season underway next month.

The boss also had a positive update on the fitness of Alexis Sanchez after he finally returned to pre-season training on Wednesday having been given an extended break following his participation in the Copa America.

Wenger confirmed that the 26-year-old is in great shape and although he feels it will take up to 10 days for Sanchez to get back to his optimum fitness, the boss didn’t rule him out of playing some part in Sunday’s clash with West Ham.

On Sanchez , Wenger is quoted as saying by the Guardian:

“He came back in surprisingly good shape. I will see. Sunday will certainly come too early but in 10 days he should be alright. I think he came back in a good shape.

Will he not be involved at all on Sunday? I don’t know yet. It depends a little bit on what I see tomorrow and who will be available. He understands that perfectly well. He is one of the players who played the World Cup, came back here and played the whole season without a break, goes to the Copa América and basically cannot start the season.”

I will personally be surprised if Sanchez does feature this weekend as it would be a big risk to throw him straight back into Premier League football after just a few days training.

CHECK OUT MY PREDICTED ARSENAL XI TO FACE WEST HAM

We have enough attacking reserves to beat the Hammers without him so I hope we give him at least another full weeks training before he returns to the first team fold.

Ideally, he could be a second half substitute against Crystal Palace next weekend before starting against Liverpool the following week, but we’ll have to see what Wenger decides to do.