Arsene Wenger Gives Injury Update On Wilshere, Sagna & Gibbs

Arsenal travel to Germany on Tuesday in preparation for Wednesday nights Champions League second leg against Bayern Munich and boss Arsene Wenger has given an injury update ahead of the game.

Many fans woke to reports that Jack Wilshere had picked up an ankle injury and unfortunately Wenger is quoted by the Mirror newspaper as confirming the news. It seems Wilshere picked up the injury against Tottenham last week and is going to be out for around 3 weeks meaning he’ll miss the Bayern game, Saturday’s Premier League fixture away at Swansea as well as England’s World Cup qualifier double-header against San Marino and Montenegro.

The boss is confident the injury will only keep Wilshere out for one league game, but as this is Arsenal and every ‘3 week injury’ seems to turn into a prolonged spell on the sidelines, Jack must also be a doubt to face Reading after the international break.

The 21-year-old has been given time to recuperate and has been away in Dubai and the good news is that the injury is to the OTHER ankle than the one that kept him out for over 14 months. Here’s what Wenger told the Mirror.

“Wilshere has an inflamed ankle, the other ankle. He will be out for Bayern, Swansea and for England.

“Hopefully for the Premier League, he will only miss one game because of the international break.

“I noticed recently he has had to dig deep for us, it’s not welcome for us but he needed a breather.

“But it’s more preventative. We trust our people who are specialists.

Wilshere will be a big loss, no doubt about it, but thankfully his injury has come at a time where he’ll miss fewer Arsenal games due to the international break. Hopefully he’s back in time to face Reading but there are rumours on Twitter that Wenger is playing down the seriousness of the injury, much like he did last season, and Jack could in fact be out for much longer. But let’s hope that’s nothing more than ideal speculation though.

Wenger also gave an update on Kieran Gibbs, Bacary Sagna and Abou Diaby. The good news is that Gibbs is back in the squad and in contention to return after six weeks out with a thigh strain. However, Sagna remains out and Diaby will face a late fitness test.

“Kieran Gibbs is back in the squad. Sagna is not available. Diaby is in the squad and will have a test this morning. He may be short but hopefully will travel,” he added.

The Mirror are also suggesting that fit-again Lukasz Fabianski could replace Wojciech Szczesny in goal, which would be a huge call from Wenger. Szczesny has been poor of late but Fabianski hasn’t played a first team game for over a year, so it will show a distinct lack of confidence in Chesser if the boss does drop him for a massive Champions League clash.

Now we’ve had the team news, what would be your preferred starting eleven for the game? Leave your suggestions below.