Arsenal Injury Update: Podolski, Walcott & More….

Arsenal welcome high-flying West Brom to the Emirates on Saturday afternoon looking to close the gap on the top-four and boss Arsene Wenger has given an injury and team news update ahead of the game.

The boss gave the latest news on Lukas Podolaki, Theo Walcott, Bacary Sagna, Laurent Koscielny and Andre Santos.

German striker Podolski has missed the last two games with a hamstring problem and he will once again be absent this weekend, but Wenger claims it to be a short-term issue. Likewise Theo will continue to be out with a calf problem.

We will also be without the services of right back Sagna – who’s still suffering from a foot injury – and Koscielny – who’s out with a thigh problem picked up against Everton 10 days ago – while Santos is still out with an abdominal injury.

Here is what Arsene told Arsenal.com ahead of the West Brom game:

on the latest issues…

Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott (calf) are out. Bacary Sagna (foot) and Laurent Koscielny (thigh) are not back. From Tuesday night in Greece there are no new injuries so we have a selection from the combined squad of Tuesday and Saturday.

on Podolski’s injury…

It is a hamstring. It should be short-term.

on Andre Santos…

He will not be ready for Saturday but he is not far away with an abdominal injury.

So the squad will be weaker than it was when we lost to Swansea last week, as we’ll be without Podolski and Walcott. Hopefully Rosicky suffered no ill-effects from his impressive 45 minutes versus Olympiakos on Tuesday and he could be in-line to start, and Giroud is likely to come in with Gervinho making way.

We’ll have a full match preview later on today. What would your starting eleven be for the game? Let us know in the comments section below.