The news that Theo Walcott has dislocated his shoulder while training with England isn’t exactly music to Arsenal fan’s ears. While preparing for tonight’s friendly with Germany, Walcott picked up the injury and was immediately taken to hospital where the shoulder was put back into place.
Speaking about the injury, Fabio Capello said that the priority was for Walcott ‘to travel home and make a quick recovery’. This is obviously what everybody at Arsenal will be hoping for. So how long can it be expected before the 19-year-old is back playing?
Well, last season Derby midfielder Stephen Pearson had the same injury and missed a month’s worth of action. Should this be the same with Walcott, he will miss four Premier League games and the remaining two games in Arsenal’s Champions League Group G campaign.
This is quite a heavy price to pay for sending someone on international friendly duty in the middle of two league games. Arsene Wenger had already criticised the timing of these international fixtures, so now he had lost one of his biggest attacking threats for the next few weeks, he is going to be far from happy.
Wenger originally said that these freindlies were ‘not particularly welcome at the moment’ and that because there isn’t another international game for four months after tonight’s games, he doesn’t ‘see what you gain’ from it.
Unfortunately, Wenger has already gained something from it though – an injured player. Perhaps Arsenal should have joined the ‘withdrawal bandwagon’ that was adopted by the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. Only three players from these teams – Wayne Bridge, John Terry and Michael Carrick – are in Capello’s squad after Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Joe Cole and Ashley Cole made themselves unavailable for selection.
The difference with these players though is that they will probably be in Premier League action again this weekend, while Walcott – who was set to start in Germany – will be sitting on the sidelines.
There is no doubt that Walcott will be missed in the coming weeks. Fair enough, he hasn’t been in electric goal scoring form, but he can always provide something on the right flank and his unavailability restricts Wenger’s attacking options big time. The football odds are always more likely to favour an Arsenal win with Walcott bombing down the right wing, after all.
For what it is worth, Capello now plans to introduce a new injury regime for England players. Unfortunately though, this has come too late to affect Arsenal’s Theo Walcott.
By Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about football betting
Arsenal News 24/7
