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[Tweet] Forgotten Arsenal man confirms surprise return v Southampton

By mac14 on January 28, 2017

Per Mertesacker has taken to Twitter to confirm that he’s set to make a surprise comeback during Arsenal’s FA Cup clash with Southampton this evening.

Mertesacker hasn’t featured yet this season as he missed the entire first half of the campaign due to a serious knee injury that he suffered against Lens in pre-season back in July.

The centre-back returned to full training in December and was close to being in contention for the first team but saw his comeback delayed after he suffered a calf injury.

Per resumed full training on Friday and I had expected it would take the 32-year-old at least a week or two before he’d be considered available for selection.

However, Mertesacker appears to have confirmed that he’ll be a surprise inclusion in the squad when we take on Southampton in the fourth round of the FA Cup this evening.

The German giant took to Twitter this morning to post a photo of himself promoting the Saints game with a message saying “It’s good to be back!” along with the hashtag ‘BFGisBack’.

Here’s the tweet:

It's good to be back! #COYG #Gooners #BFGisBack pic.twitter.com/Hv0pjg5b7y

— Per Mertesacker (@mertesacker) January 28, 2017

Wenger gave no indication that Per was being considered for this weekend at his press conference on Thursday and I’ve not seen anything in the newspapers to suggest that Mertesacker would be involved tonight so this comes as a big surprise.

But Arsene wouldn’t risk him if he wasn’t ready as we have plenty of cover at centre-back so it looks as though Mertesacker is set to be included in the squad later, but it remains to be seen whether he’ll start the match.