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Arsenal boss confirms attacker will miss Burnley trip + Welbeck update

By mac14 on November 24, 2017

Arsene Wenger has confirmed Theo Walcott will miss Sunday’s trip to Burnley but Danny Welbeck is available for the game at Turf Moor.

Walcott missed last weekend’s win over Tottenham due to illness and didn’t travel to Germany for our Europa League defeat at Cologne yesterday.

The boss has confirmed the attacker has returned to training and should be back in contention next week but the trip to Burnley will come too soon for Walcott.

Wenger had better news regarding Danny Welbeck as the manager has confirmed the 26-year-old’s substitution against Cologne last night was pre-planned.

Welbeck started his first game in six weeks last night after recovering from a hamstring injury but sparked fears he had picked up a knock after being substituted at half time.

However, Wenger has confirmed that he decided not to risk Welbeck for more than 45 minutes after he sustained his hamstring injury 65 minutes in to his comeback game from a hip complaint.

So Walcott should be back next week meaning our only serious injury is Santi Cazorla – who continues to recover from a career-threatening Achilles injury.

Arsene told Arsenal.com:

on team news…
Everybody looks alright. There are some kicks because it was quite a physical game [at Cologne], but overall we have no injuries. Everyone who played will be available to compete for the squad on Sunday. That is one of the positives of last night, we have no injuries. The fact we can rotate means the players are less overloaded with competition.

on it being a nice feeling to have those options in such a busy period…
Yes because we play every three days. Apart from Theo Walcott, and long-term Santi Cazorla, all the players are available.

on Theo Walcott…
For the weekend, no [he is not available]. He’s back in training now, so he should be okay for next week. He has been ill.

on Santi Cazorla…
I hope to see him soon, that he comes over to give an update.

on Danny Welbeck…
The last time he came back from injury, we played him at Watford and after an hour he got a bad hamstring. This time I didn’t want to take that gamble. I wanted to be a bit more progressive with him. Almost certainly, nothing would have happened but I felt it was more sensible to do it. He’s fine. He’s completely fine.

The squad is now in excellent health so we have no excuses not to put a decent run of results together and maintain our push for the top four.