Arsenal Team News & Injury Update: Latest On Monreal, Wilshere, Walcott & More…

Arsenal travel to the Midlands on Saturday afternoon to take on West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns looking to maintain our push for a top four place.

Ahead of the game, assistant manager Steve Bould has given Arsenal.com a team news and injury update with the latest on Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott and Nacho Monreal, while he also confirmed the only long-term absentees are Abou Diaby and Ryo Miyaichi.

Unfortunately both Wilshere and Walcott will once again be missing this weekend but could be back in contention to face Norwich next week.

Wilshere picked up an ankle injury against Tottenham on the 3rd March and was given further time to recover following the completion of the international break. It was hoped the 21-year-old would be fit to face WBA but it’s taken longer than anticipated but Bould confirmed he’s back running outside and may be fit to face the Canaries at the Emirates.

Walcott strained his groin while away with the England squad last month and was forced to miss last weekends win over Reading, but he too is back running again and is now racing to be fit to play next weekend. Left-back Monreal was forced off against Reading on Saturday after crashing into the post while attempting to prevent the visitors consolation goal, but he’s trained this week and is in contention to start at the Hawthorns.

Here’s what Bouldy told the clubs official website:

on Wilshere and Walcott…

We have good news with both of them. Jack and Theo are outside running, and have an outside chance of being involved against Norwich a week on Saturday.

on Monreal…

Nacho has recovered well from his knee problem from the impact of the post and has trained the last couple of days so is available for the weekend.

on long-term injuries…

We just have Ryo and Abou out for the long-term so things are looking good in terms of availability.

The longer Wilshere is ruled out the more I’m sensing a feeling of deja vu. It started off as a ‘minor’ 3 week injury but here we are nearly five weeks later and we still don’t have any guarantees he’ll be fit to play next week. Fingers crossed he’s OK and Arsenal aren’t covering up something more serious.

Walcott wasn’t really missed last weekend as Gervinho stepped up and put in an excellent performance so hopefully he can reproduce more of the same this weekend.

Now we’ve seen the team news, what would be your starting line-up for the WBA game? Leave your suggestions in the comments section below.