Arsenal Team News: Wenger Confirms Double Injury Blow But Duo Set To Return

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has given a team news and injury update to Arsenal.com ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League clash against Dinamo Zagreb.

Unfortunately the Frenchman confirmed that Francis Coquelin is set for an extended spell on the sidelines after suffering a serious knee injury during our 2-1 defeat at West Brom on Saturday.

Coquelin was forced off inside the opening 15 minutes at the Hawthorns after injuring his knee while making a tackle in the middle of the park and it was immediately thought he had done some damage.

Those fears appear to have been realised as Wenger has confirmed that Coquelin is facing a spell on the sidelines and while we should soon know more over an exact timescale, the boss says the midfielder is likely to be out for ‘the next few months’.

In what is a double blow, Mikel Arteta has also picked up another injury after going off against West Brom with a calf problem – although his injury isn’t as serious as Coquelin’s.

There is some positive news as Wenger revealed that Aaron Ramsey is available again after returning to full training following a month out with a hamstring injury while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is due back for the Norwich game next weekend.

Here is what the boss told Arsenal.com:

on team news…

Coquelin and Arteta are out. Arteta is short-term and Coquelin is longer. How big the damage is we don’t know but we will know for certain this [Monday] afternoon. Everyone from Saturday’s game is available and Ramsey is available.

on Coquelin’s injury…

It is at least a month. I’m a bit cautious as we have had so many bad surprises on the scans… but the team for the next few months will be without Coquelin.

on getting more injuries than most clubs…

It looks like that at the moment. I must say we have been hit very hard in November as until November and the Sheffield Wednesday game we had quite a good record and since then we lost a few players. But now we have Ramsey and for the weekend Oxlade-Chamberlain will be back as well. After that Walcott will be the next one. [As for] the players who have long-term injuries, basically some of them are from last season like Rosicky and Welbeck.

It’s obviously a huge blow to lose Coquelin and it sounds like he’s not going to be available until well in to 2016 which is going to have a major impact on our title chances.

However, with Ramsey and Oxlade-Chamberlain on the verge of first team returns at least Wenger will have two key men available again soon.