Arsenal Team News: Wenger Rules Attacker Out Of Crucial Leicester City Clash

Arsene Wenger has been speaking to Arsenal.com today and given a team news and injury update ahead of Arsenal’s crucial showdown with Leicester City this weekend.

We entertain the current Premier League leaders at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon but Wenger has indicated that the game will come too soon for attacker Danny Welbeck.

The 25-year-old is yet to feature this season after undergoing surgery in September to cure a long-standing knee complaint that he originally suffered way back in April of last season.

Welbeck has been making steady progress in his recovery in recent months and finally returned to full training two weeks ago, while he made his playing comeback with a 60 minute run out for the under-21’s last week.

There were outside hopes Danny may be passed fit to make the squad this weekend but while Arsene says he’s back to ‘full power’ in training, the Leicester game is almost certainly going to come too soon and Welbeck is more likely to make his return against Hull City in the FA Cup next weekend.

Thankfully we haven’t suffered any fresh injuries so it means the boss will pick from the same squad that beat AFC Bournemouth last Sunday.

Wenger told the clubs website:

on the team news…
It is a similar squad available to last week, we are still early in the week but we should have everyone available. Of course Rosicky [is out], and Wilshere is not ready. But everyone else should be available

on Danny Welbeck…
He is doing well, it is a bit early for him maybe but he is now back to full power in training. It is a big possibility [he could be involved against Hull next week]. We gave him one or two days recovery after the under-21 game, but now he is back in full training. He has worked very hard and he is fit.

It would have been a huge boost if Welbeck was passed fit to face Leicester as we could have done with another option in attack, but it’s probably sensible to let him get another full weeks training under his belt and give him some minutes against Hull next weekend.