Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has blamed the World Cup for the Premier League club’s current injury problems.
The North London side sit nine points off league leaders Chelsea and have struggled this season to find consistent form after a number of their top players suffered injury problems.
Laurent Koscielny, Olivier Giroud, Mathieu Debuchy and Mesut Ozil are the most notable absentees at present and Wenger has discussed the impact of this summer’s World Cup in Brazil.
“There are a lot of post-World Cup injuries and not many soft tissue injuries,” Wenger told reporters.
“I gave [those who played at the World Cup] until August 11, Germany played the final on July 13, that was a month and should be enough after a big competition.
“For example, Giroud – I don’t know what we can do about Giroud’s injury. Debuchy was on his own when he did the ankle.
“Then you have Ozil. You know how Ozil did the injury? Passing the ball with the outside of his left foot. He must have done that a million times. He just wanted to give the ball like that and heard a little crack.
“I think we have made progress. What’s different is we have a bit more prevention than before for the players to prepare. For us this season, we had big injuries and coincidental injuries.”
Speaking on French defender Koscielny, Wenger said that he and medical staff were highly considering giving the centre back a longer rest period.
“Koscielny has an Achilles problem, which has got worse. He finds it difficult to play with it at the moment. You can only trust what the players says, he does not feel ready to play and will not play on Saturday,” he added.
“An inflammation of an Achilles tendon, if you wait for it to be better, it can be a short time. If you want to get rid of it completely, it is long term.
“We will monitor him and as soon as he can take enough pain again he will play. No [he will not need surgery]. We have scanned him, there is no deterioration of his achilles at all. It is just the inflammation.”
