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Arsenal boss confirms injury blow ahead of Southampton trip + attacker concern

By on December 8, 2017

shkodran mustafi arsenal

Arsene Wenger has provided the latest team news ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Southampton this weekend.

Unfortunately, the boss has confirmed that Shkodran Mustafi will miss the game on Sunday after failing to recover from a thigh injury.

Mustafi limped off just minutes after his error had gifted Manchester United their second goal en route to a 3-1 victory at the Emirates last week.

Wenger revealed after the game that the German international was forced off with a thigh problem but he was hopeful he’d recover in time to face Southampton.

However, the boss has confirmed to Arsenal.com that Mustafi will defiantly miss the trip to the South Coast and he’s also a doubt to take on West Ham next Wednesday.

Wenger also revealed that there was a concern over Theo Walcott as a minor calf problem forced him off during our 6-0 victory over BATE in the Europa League last night.

Walcott produced his best display of the season as he scored one, set-up two others and won a penalty but it seems he felt a little tightness in his calf so he was withdrawn as a precaution.

Otherwise, the squad is in great shape with Santi Cazorla the only long-term absentee as the Spaniard begins the long road to recovery having suffered a setback in his rehabilitation from an Achilles injury.

The boss told the clubs website:

on team news…
The only one out at the moment is Mustafi. He is certainly not available for Sunday. There’s a little chance of him coming back for West Ham, but he will not be available for Sunday.

on being in the middle of December with only two players out…
I believe that rotation allowed us to protect the players a little bit, and the players who didn’t play in the Europa League haven’t had to travel either, so that helped.

on Theo Walcott’s recovery from illness…
He was alright [after the game]. He had a little tight calf and that’s why I took him off. He looked alright after the game.

With Mustafi out it looks like Per Mertesacker is set for a recall as he was left out against BATE last night so I expect we’ll see him line-up alongside Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal at St Mary’s.

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