Arsenal Injury News: Wenger Offers Update On Walcott, Ozil, Ramsey + More

Arsenal welcome champions Manchester City to the Emirates Stadium on Saturday lunchtime for the stand-out fixture this weekend.

Ahead of the game, boss Arsene Wenger has been speaking at his pre-match press conference and gave Arsenal.com a team news and injury update including the latest on Mesut Ozil, Theo Walcott, Mikel Arteta, Kieran Gibbs and Aaron Ramsey.

Let’s start with the latest on Ramsey after the midfielder was forced off during the final stages of Wales’ 2-1 win over Andorra on Tuesday night with an ankle issue. Wenger says the injury isn’t bad but the 23-year-old will be assessed further this afternoon before a decision is made over his involvement this weekend.

Thankfully Kieran Gibbs is definitely back in the squad after recovering from a hamstring injury that he suffered against Crystal Palace on the opening weekend of the new season. Gibbs should come straight back in to replace Nacho Monreal at left-back.

Arsene also confirmed that Arteta is available having recovered from an ankle injury that has kept him out of the last three games while Ozil is also fit despite pulling out of the Germany squad with an ankle knock suffered against Leicester City.

The boss was asked for the latest on the fitness of Theo Walcott and is seems the medical team may have decided to slow down his recovery program. Before the international break Arsene claimed that Theo would be back in full training at the start of September but now he’s saying the 25-year-old is still two to three weeks away.

Hopefully he’s not suffered any sort of set-back and the club are just being cautious over his return after such a serious injury. Here’s what Arsene told the clubs website:

on Aaron Ramsey…

The first news is not bad. He will be assessed today and he has a little chance to be available for Saturday. He had an ankle sprain but it’s a minor one that’s for sure. Will it be enough to be available for Saturday? We’ll know today.

on the other team news…

Arteta and Gibbs are back in the squad and in normal training. Ozil had a knock and didn’t play for Germany because he had a sprained ankle. He will be available as well.

on Theo Walcott…

Walcott is two to three weeks away from joining full training.

On the whole it’s positive as we’ll have Ozil, Arteta and Gibbs all available and Danny Welbeck is also in contention to make his debut. Let’s just hope Ramsey is passed fit as he’d be a major loss if he was to miss the game.