Arsenal
Arsenal Boss Reveals Major Blow As Star Suffers Setback In His Injury Recovery
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has confirmed a major blow with the news that a key player is behind in his recovery from injury.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has offered an update on the fitness of Santi Cazorla and has revealed that the midfielder is behind schedule in his recovery from ankle surgery.
Cazorla has been on the sidelines since aggravating an Achilles injury during our 6-0 victory over Ludogorets in the Champions League back in October 2016.
After the inflammation refused to subside, the decision was taken for Cazorla to undergo surgery to finally cure the problem and he eventually went under the knife in early December.
The Spanish international was initially expected to be back playing again inside three months, however, Wenger has now revealed that Cazorla’s recovery is taking longer than he had hoped.
The boss confirmed that the 32-year-old is still not ready to resume light training yet and even when he is it will be six weeks before he’ll be available again, so the midfielder is not even close to making his comeback.
Speaking at his press conference ahead of our FA Cup clash at Preston this weekend, Wenger is quoted as saying by the Daily Star:
“At the moment he is far. It’s not going as quickly as I imagined it. Certainly in January he will not come back.
“It could be a bit longer than three months. At the moment I don’t really know but I have a schedule that he is not planned to go outside and run.
“Once a player goes outside and runs I count six weeks. So obviously in January he won’t play.
“He started the season in a great way and he was the dominating player in the squad.”
Even if Cazorla manages to resume light training later this month, he still won’t be available for selection until the end of February so we’re going to have to plan to be without the midfielder for the foreseeable future.
It’s a real blow as Santi is a key part of Wenger’s starting eleven and we’ve missed him hugely over the past few months, and with Francis Coquelin now out for 4 weeks with a hamstring and Mohamed Elneny at the Africa Cup of Nations, we’re down to the bare bones in midfield.
