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Arsenal dealt huge injury blow ahead of Atletico Madrid clash

By on April 23, 2018

Arsenal have been dealt a major injury blow after Arsene Wenger confirmed that Henrikh Mkhitaryan won’t be fit to face Atletico Madrid on Thursday night.

We welcome the Spanish giants to the Emirates for the first leg of our Europa League semi-final and the boss said last week that he hoped Mkhitaryan would be ready for the game.

The Armenian international returned to light training last week after recovering from a knee ligament injury that he sustained during the quarter-final first leg win over CSKA Moscow and Wenger was hopeful he’d fit to face Atletico on Thursday.

However, it seems that game will come too soon as the boss confirmed after Sunday’s 4-1 victory over West Ham that Mkhitaryan won’t be available for the first leg.

Wenger also said Mesut Ozil is a doubt after missing the Hammers game due to ‘illness’ but I’d bet my house that the German international makes a miraculous recovery to face Atletico.

There was positive news on Jack Wilshere as Arsene believes the midfielder has a good chance to be fit on Thursday after making good progress in his recovery from an ankle injury that’s kept him out of the last two games.

Wenger told Arsenal.com:

“Jack had a training session today and he looked positive so he has a good chance to be available for Thursday,”

“Ozil was sickness [flu] so I cannot tell you much more about that. We will have to see how he recovers tomorrow [Monday].

“But Mkhitaryan won’t be available on Thursday.”

It’s a big blow that Miki has been ruled out and now Wenger must decide whether to go with Danny Welbeck or Alex Iwobi in attack but personally I’d go with Welbeck and Ozil behind Lacazette.

We better hope that Wilshere is fully fit to start in midfield as Mohamed Elneny has been ruled out of the Madrid game after suffering an ankle injury against West Ham yesterday.