Arsenal
Arsenal Boss Confirms Star Is Close To Making Long Awaited Injury Comeback
Arsene Wenger has confirmed that a player is closing in on making his long-awaited comeback from injury and should be in the squad in 2 weeks.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Per Mertesacker is back in light training and should return to the squad in two weeks as he bids to finally get his season underway.
Mertesacker has endured a hugely frustrating campaign as he missed the first six months after sustaining a serious knee injury during a pre-season friendly against Lens back in July 2016.
The 32-year-old was close to making his comeback at the turn of the year but his progress was hampered after suffering a calf injury in training at the start of January which ruled him out for another month.
However, it looks as though Mertesacker is now edging closer to making his first appearance of the season as Wenger has confirmed the defender is back in light training and should be in the main squad in just two weeks time.
The boss also took the opportunity to reveal that the club have triggered an option to extend the former German international’s contract by a further year and Wenger says he’ll be pleased to have the experienced defender around during the second half of the season.
Wenger is quoted by Sky Sports as saying at his pre-match press conference this morning ahead of our clash with Burnley:
“He’s [Mertesacker] back in training, not with the squad, but he’s two weeks away now.
“He has an option that we have taken. There was no negotiation, just an option that we have taken.
“With the number of games we have it’s important that we have all our experienced players back and that everybody is focused to do well.
“We’re going through a moment of truth now, January until May is five months to go. You want ideally all your players with big experience back in your squad.”
So it looks as though Mertesacker will be available again next month but I think he’s going to find regular first team football hard to come by as Shkodran Mustafi has impressed alongside Laurent Koscielny since joining from Valencia in the summer.
Per is now going to have to get used to being nothing more than a squad player from now on but he’ll still be a useful player to have around the dressing room and I’m sure he’ll still get a few games in the cup competitions.
