Arsenal Injury Update: Walcott Out, Gervinho Back & More….

Arsenal welcome French champions Montpellier to the Emirates on Wednesday night looking to secure their place in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

Ahead of the game, manager Arsene Wenger has given an injury update with news on Theo Walcott, Gervinho and Kieran Gibbs. Contract rebel Walcott, who has been in excellent form of late, has been ruled out after picking up a shoulder injury during our 5-2 thrashing of Tottenham on Saturday. Theo will have a scan today but Wenger is hopeful it’s only a short-term problem.

The good news is that Gervinho and Gibbs both return to the squad. Gervinho has been out for three weeks with an ankle injury while Gibbs has been on the sidelines for over six weeks and has been badly missed, so his return is a big boost.

Here is what Wenger told Arsenal.com:

on the latest team news…

From Saturday, we have [almost] the same squad. But one player who will miss Wednesday’s game is Walcott. It’s the injury he got during the game with his shoulder. We have to scan that today and see if there is no damage. He will be out for tomorrow but it should be short-term. We will miss Santos as well, who has an abdominal muscle strain.

on players coming back…

The two players coming in the squad are Gervinho and Gibbs.

on having Gervinho back…

He had quite a bad ankle strain. Kieran Gibbs as well was out for a while.

Vermaelen has been doing a decent job at left back, stepping in for the hapless Santos in recent weeks, so unless Gibbs is 100% fit there is no point risking him against Montpellier.  With Walcott out, i’d like to see Oxlade-Chamberlain given a start on the right hand side. He made a real impact off the bench on Saturday and deserves a start.

I’ll have a preview of the game up tomorrow at some point. Till then….