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Team News: Wenger confirms Arsenal star has returned to training

By on November 25, 2016

Lucas-Perez arsenal

Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Lucas Perez is back in full training and could be in line to make his playing comeback against Southampton next week.

Perez has been on the sidelines since suffering ankle ligament damage following a strong challenge by Danzell Gravenberch during our EFL Cup win over Reading last month.

The Spanish hitman was initially expected to be out for up to six weeks but he made swift progress during the early stages of his recovery and Wenger revealed last week that Perez was well ahead of schedule having resumed light individual training.

It looks like the 28-year-old has now been given the green light to step-up  his return even further as the boss confirmed this afternoon that Perez has now taken part in his first full training session with the rest of the squad.

The striker isn’t going to be in contention to take on Bournemouth on Sunday, however, he could be available for selection when we take on Southampton in the EFL Cup next Wednesday night.

Wenger was speaking at his pre-match press conference this afternoon where he also revealed that Santi Cazorla and Hector Bellerin remain sidelined through injury but thankfully we didn’t pick up any fresh injury problems against PSG.

Wenger told Arsenal.com today:

on team news…
I don’t think from the other night we have any injuries, so everybody should be available. In cases like Cazorla and Bellerin, they are still out. We have nobody coming back.

on Lucas…
Lucas is for the first time in training today [Friday]. He might be in contention for Wednesday [against Southampton], but one training session is not enough to be involved on Sunday.

Perez has struggled to secure regular first team football since joining the club from Deportivo La Coruna in the summer having made just three starts so far.

However, hopefully he can get some game-time against the Saints next week and try to kick start his Arsenal career as I think he could be a useful player once he’s fully settled in England.