Arsenal Team News: Wenger Offers Positive Update On Walcott, Wilshere & Ramsey

Arsenal will look to get their Champions League campaign up and running when we take on Galatasaray at the Emirates on Wednesday night.

Ahead of the game, Arsene Wenger has been speaking at his press conference this afternoon and gave Arsenal.com a team news and injury update.

The boss started by confirming that Jack Wilshere has been passed fit and is in the squad for the game, but he hasn’t decided whether he will start or not.

There were fears the midfielder had picked up another injury after twisting his ankle on Saturday but thankfully he’s not suffered any lasting damage so could feature tomorrow.

Wenger also revealed some positive news on Aaron Ramsey. The Welshman was forced off against Spurs with a hamstring injury and reports yesterday suggested the 23-year-old was set for six weeks on the sidelines.

However, Wenger has confirmed that Ramsey is in fact only going to be out for a maximum of four weeks and could be back within three if he recovers quickly, with a return after the international break a realistic possibility.

There was also some excellent news on Theo Walcott with the attacker set to return to full training next week. Theo has been out since early January with a ruptured knee ligament be he, along with Serge Gnabry, are now closing in on his first team comeback.

Wenger also confirmed that Mikel Arteta is out for around three weeks with a calf strain while the boss has decided to leave Abou Diaby out of the squad for tomorrow as he’s not yet match fit.

Here’s what Wenger told the clubs website:

on the team news…

Jack Wilshere is in the squad for tomorrow. Will I start him? I don’t know yet but he’s in the squad.

on other injuries…

I left Abou Diaby out as well because he’s not completely there yet. We lost Mikel Arteta (calf) and Aaron Ramsey (hamstring) in our last game and it could have been three because Wilshere was a doubt for a long time but he recovered quite well.

on the Ramsey injury…

To be generous with time, let’s say four weeks. If all goes well, three. After the international break hopefully he will not be far away. Sometimes the international break is welcome! It is the same for Arteta, [he will come back] a bit quicker maybe.

on Theo Walcott…

Walcott is joining in full training next week. It’s very good news. Serge Gnabry as well. Theo’s return is a big thing for us. Let’s not forget that he got injured on January 1 and we are now in October. That’s 10 months and we had to wait for a long time.

Our options are extremely limited for the upcoming games against Galatasaray and Chelsea but if we can come through these two fixtures with positive results, then the injury situation should look a lot brighter after the international break with Walcott, Gnabry, Monreal, Diaby, Arteta and possibly Ramsey all expected back in first team contention.