Arsenal Boss Confirms Huge Injury Boost + Concerning Update On Cazorla

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Lucas Perez is back in training after making a swift recovery from an ankle injury but there is a concerning update on Santi Cazorla.

Perez has found first team football hard to come by following his move from Deportivo La Coruña in the summer with the striker making just three starts and two substitute appearances for the club so far.

The 28-year-old hasn’t featured since suffering what was initially thought to be a serious ankle ligament injury during our EFL Cup win over Reading at the Emirates last month.

The Spaniard was expected to be on the sidelines for around six weeks, however, it looks as though he’s set to make a swift return as Wenger has now confirmed that Perez is already back in light training.

Wenger says that the striker is ahead of schedule in his recovery and while he isn’t training with the first team squad just yet, it appears he’s on course to making his comeback over the coming games.

The boss told Arsenal.com:

on Lucas…
He’s back in training already, but not with the squad. He’s ahead of schedule, yes.

It will be a big boost to have Perez available again as he’ll give us another vital option in attack as we head in to the hectic Christmas and New Year period. The Spaniard won’t feature against PSG or Bournemouth at the weekend but hopefully he could be back in time to play some part against Southampton in the EFL Cup next week.

While there was positive news on Perez, there was a more concerning update on Cazorla as Wenger says he’s given up on trying to predict when the midfielder will be available for selection again.

Santi has been on the sidelines since aggravating a long-standing Achilles injury against Ludogorets over five weeks ago and is still not able to resume first team training, so Wenger is reluctant to set a time-frame over his recovery.

The boss told Arsenal.com:

on Santi Cazorla…
At the moment I’ve given a little bit up on that, I don’t know how far he is. It looks to me that he’s making progress but as long as a player is not in full-time training with the squad, it’s very difficult to set targets. It’s not a big injury that will harm his future but it’s an inflammation at the back of his Achilles and it’s always very difficult on inflammations to give a set time.

It’s a huge concern that Cazorla is taking so long to recover as he’s been a massive miss over the past six games. We can only hope that the Achilles injury eases over the coming days and he’s finally able to start thinking about making his return to the first team.