Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Complete team update: who’s fit and who’s out for Wednesday

 
 

It's been a rather tough start to the EPL campaign for Arsenal this season, and you certainly cannot shy away  from the fact that injuries to key players has been a contributing factor to this run of poor results, Here's a complete injury  and team update of the entire Arsenal team.

 

Long term injuries

Mesut Ozil

Mathieu Debuchy

Olivier Giroud – although poised to come back sooner than we thought.  December?

Medium term

Laurent Koscielny (situation unclear)

David Ospina (situation unclear)

Koscielny’s injury is a self-reporting one – he says his Achilles is hurting but he’s not in a position for the medics to say this date or that date for a recovery time.

What Laurent appears to have is Achilles tendonitis = which is an inflammation and is typically short-lived.   But it can turn into something worse, (Achilles tendonosis) if not handled properly.  However it shouldn’t go that way, as long as he’s careful.

It is what we doctors call an “overuse” disorder, caused by a repetitive activity involving the Achilles tendon – which of course is what footballers get.  Ongoing stress on the tendon means the body can’t repair the tissue, the structure of the tendon is then altered, and there is pain, which is nature’s way of telling you to stop running around and sit down.

So Laurent could be back any time – he just has to wait until it stops hurting.

Ospina’s situation is not clear, but he will not be playing against Anderlecht it seems.  Which means Martinez in goal, and maybe Ryan Huddart of the under 21s on the bench.

Short term

Yaya Sanogo – should be ready any time soon.

Isaac Hayden – an ankle injury, but not details available.

Recovering and just on ready

Theo Walcott – everything depends on how his body reacts after a long lay off, and the most likely use of Theo for a while is going to be coming on as a sub in a game where he is not going to be targeted for a kicking.

Theo played 45 minutes for the Under-21s against Blackburn – his first game in nine months after injuring his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.  His view was “I got through fine. I need to be patient with myself. It is important to recover. I need to be patient. The manager will choose to play me when he wants – the injury needs to be managed as well.”

Serge Gnabry – the situation is the same as for Theo, except that as a younger player he can try to do too much too quickly and hurt himself.  Youngsters showing that they are the players that the team has been missing all this time, can do themselves more harm because of that lack of psychological adjustment.

Both players need to be brought in according to their mental and physical condition.

Abou Diaby also played 67 minutes in the under 21 game, where he has been slowly building up his strength.  It is hard to know when he will be ready for a return to the first team.

Back and ready

Aaron Ramsey

Mikel Arteta

Nacho Monreal

Tomas Rosicky

Uncertain

Jack Wilshere.  It looked like a self-destructive lunge against Hull that sent him straight down the tunnel, but it seems he’s ok, so could well play against Anderlecht – and certainly for next weekend.

Discoveries

Hector Bellerin – what a superb player to have coming through from the youth team.  Absolutely magnificent potential.  What he needs is games, and with this injury run on-going I guess he is going to get them.

Overall this means we are without

Mesut Ozil

Mathieu Debuchy

Olivier Giroud

Laurent Koscielny

David Ospina

Yaya Sanogo

Isaac Hayden

With the bottom four on the list due back any time soon.

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