Wenger Offers Koscielny Injury Update: Boss Reveals Worrying News

Arsene Wenger has revealed that Laurent Koscielny’s niggling Achilles injury won’t completely clear up unless the defender has two or three months rest.

Koscielny’s season has been plagued by a troublesome Achilles injury which forced him to miss over six weeks during October and November after he aggravated it while away on international duty with the French national team.

The 29-year-old returned to steady the ship and guide us to wins over West Brom and Southampton without conceding a goal, but he’s since been sidelined by a calf injury that’s seen him miss the last two games against Stoke and Galatasaray while he’s also set to sit out this evening’s clash against Newcastle United.

The calf injury is thought to be as a direct result of Koscielny over-compensating to protect his Achilles and Arsene Wenger has now revealed that doctors have warned the problem won’t completely disappear unless the defender is rested for two to three months.

Wenger told reporters yesterday:

“I have to consider the fact he [Koscielny] has an inflamed achilles and nobody can guarantee that will not come back,” Wenger said.

“No doctor says to me: ‘It’s over.’ It can come back. Even with complete rest, you need to rest him for two or three months.”

Koscielny was rested back in October but the boss went on to say that it’s important not to give the player ‘complete’ rest as in order to strengthen the Achilles again, you need to work on it. He continued:

“But he didn’t rest completely [in October],” Wenger said. “Because you have to load your achilles and strengthen, it is not a complete rest. To find back the strength in the achilles, you have to load it and work on it.”

The good news is that Wenger hasn’t ruled Koscielny out for two to three months, but it’s clear that the club are going to have to carefully manage him throughout the rest of the season before he can hopefully clear up the issue in the summer once and for all.

It’s going to be interesting to see what Wenger does in January now following his revelations about Koscielny, as it would be a huge risk to go into the second half of the season relying on the Frenchman being able to play three games a week. His Achilles could flare up at any time leaving us extremely short at the back, so I think it’s imperative we bring in a reliable centre-back this winter.