Arsene Wenger says that Arsenal could be boosted by the return of Mesut Ozil much earlier than expected. The German midfielder was diagnosed with a long-term injury that could have potentially kept him until the middle of January. He has missed the last couple of matches. Ozil is one of the several players on the sidelines for the Gunners, but Arsenal’s form has improved in the last few matches. He has not played since the 2-0 defeat against Chelsea, but Arsenal have been unbeaten in the last four. This includes two back-to-back victories in the Premier League, although they were only against Sunderland and Burnley.
The injury crisis slowly appears to be clearing for the North London team. They recently welcomed Theo Walcott back into action for the first time this campaign. The England international has spent several months on the sidelines after suffering a major knee injury at the end of last campaign. Ironically, Arsenal failed to identify the injury for Ozil and it was only brought to the attention by the German football Association when he was involved in the international duty. Back then, his recovery time was put at 12 weeks but Wenger says that Ozil could be back in around half that time.
“He is out for a while now, I think at least six weeks. I didn’t even know about it. At half-time, just before we went out, the physio told me he had a little pain in his knee, but it’s not bad and he wanted to go on. I told him ‘if you don’t feel well tell me and I will take you off straight away’, but he never did and I left him on because we needed to find a goal,” said Wenger about Ozil’s injury and the club’s failure to recognise this problem.