Wilshere Returns! Jack Included In Arsenal Squad To Face Norwich

The moment all Arsenal fans have waiting over 14 months for….the return of Jack Wilshere! The midfielder is set to make his long-awaited return from injury after his agent confirmed he’s been included in the Arsenal squad that has travelled to Norwich for Saturday evening’s encounter.

Wilshere has been on the sidelines for over 14 months with ankle and foot injuries but stepped up his return to fitness after completing 90 minutes in a friendly against Chelsea on Monday.

It was expected that the 20-year-old would not return to the first team fold until later in the month with many expecting his first taste of action to come in the Capital One Cup against Reading on the 30th.

However, it seems Arsene Wenger is ready to introduce him to first team action sooner than expected after Wilshere’s agent Simon Bayliff tweeted that he was in the squad to face Norwich on Saturday.

Quoted in the Independent, Bayliff tweeted:

“It’s been two “good news” days in a row. Doesn’t happen very often. Jack travels to Norwich in the #AFC 1st team squad! Delighted.”

It’s something of a surprise given the comments of Arsene Wenger earlier on Friday morning, when the boss claimed that Wilshere was only at 80% match fitness and gave no indication that he was set to name him in this weekend’s squad, saying he was still one game away from returning.

“There are two aspects,” said Wenger.

“One is the apprehension to go into challenges when you have too many injuries, on that front we are at 100 per cent. We even have to calm him down. He goes for every challenge and has no apprehension.

“Then you have the physical front – he is okay there, then you have the match fitness which is 80 per cent.”

“He needs one more game, maybe Monday night with the reserves, then he should be back,” he said.

Wenger was quoted as saying in the Independent

While it’s excellent news that Wilshere is back in the first team squad, it’s almost certain he won’t start. The best case scenario is Wenger is able to bring him on for 15-20 minutes to ease him back in to action.

After such a long time out there is no point bringing him back too early. We need to be cautious with him and gradually bring him back into the fold.

Hopefully if he gets some minutes under his belt against Norwich he could follow that up with another substitute appearance against Schalke next week before being considered as a starter against QPR next weekend.

Welcome back Jack!

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