Arsenal Injury News: Latest On Welbeck, Mustafi, Oxlade-Chamberlain & Cazorla

Arsenal have picked up injuries at just the wrong time of the season again so here is the latest on the fitness of Shkodran Mustafi, Santi Cazorla, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Danny Welbeck and Per Mertesacker, courtesy of the Telegraph.

Mustafi has been on the sidelines since suffering a hamstring injury during the early stages of our 3-1 victory over Stoke City at the Emirates on December 10th.

The German international has been sorely missed over the past two games as we’ve suffered painful defeats away to Everton and Manchester City which has left out title challenge hanging by a thread.

Mustafi posted an update on Twitter earlier this week saying he’s working hard in the gym trying to get back to full fitness, however, the Telegraph claim that the defender still isn’t expected back until the New Year.

That means the centre-back will miss the visit of West Bromwich Albion to the Emirates on Boxing Day and is also likely to miss the Crystal Palace game on New Year’s Day but we’ll have to wait and see whether he’ll be available for the trip to Bournemouth two days later.

Cazorla has also been a huge miss since he aggravated a long-standing Achilles injury back in mid-October and the Spaniard isn’t expected to be back in the squad until March after undergoing surgery last month.

Welbeck hasn’t played since suffering a serious knee injury in May of last season and the striker returned to full training last week after undertaking a long road to recovery over the past seven months.

Obviously it’s going to take some time for Welbeck to rebuild his match fitness so the Telegraph say he’s unlikely to be back in the first team squad until sometime in January, but it will still be a huge boost to have him during the second half of the season.

Mertesacker is another long-term injury victim as he’s yet to play this season after sustaining a knee injury in pre-season but the German is also back in full training and should be pushing for a return in the New Year.

The final update is regarding Oxlade-Chamberlain and the newspaper says that the midfielder is set to miss this weekend’s game with West Brom after suffering a hamstring injury against City at the weekend.

However, it’s not yet known how long he’ll be out for as the injury is still being assessed, but fingers crossed for good news as losing another key player is the last thing we need.