Wilshere ruled out for Arsenal with virus

Arsene Wenger has confirmed Jack Wilshere is out of Tuesday’s Champions League game against Anderlecht after he fell victim to a virus sweeping through the club.

Aaron Ramsey was struck down by the bug last week and missed Saturday’s game against Burnley, with Wilshere now joining him on the sidelines.

“Jack has been sick and he will not be involved [against Anderlecht],” confirmed Wenger, who was then asked whether a virus was sweeping through his squad.

“Apparently, yes,” he said. “We had nobody else sick, but Ramsey last week and Wilshere as well.”

Wenger offered a more upbeat assessment on his big-name absentees, whose absence has undermined Arsenal’s efforts in the opening weeks of this season.

“We had a lot of long-term injuries,” confirmed Wenger. “We had Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott, Mathieu Debuchy and Mesut Ozil injured but they are slowly all getting better. Theo [Walcott] is the first to come back but I believe we are at the end of the tunnel.”

Wenger went to suggest Ramsey’s injury problems had affected his form in recent weeks, and claimed the midfielder will get back to his best if he can enjoy a run in the first team.

“He’s running after consistency,” said Wenger. “He’s one of the players who has been very efficient last season. Since the start of the season, he has not had a consistent run. He’s now coming back, but he’s not found the level that we are used to from him.”

Wenger went on to suggest Anderlecht will provide his Arsenal team with a stern test of their Champions League credentials, after they were pushed all the way by the Belgian champions in Brussels two weeks ago.

“We respect them because they gave us a tough game,” added Wenger. “We had a bit of a miraculous win because we needed to go until the last minute, but that also showed our quality in that game.

“We have been warned and we have learned a lot from this game and we want to win the game at the Emirates.”

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd

Feeds: ESPN staff

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.