Quantcast
Home   >   News   >   Injury update on Ozil, Koscielny, Ramsey & Welbeck ahead of Liverpool

Injury update on Ozil, Koscielny, Ramsey & Welbeck ahead of Liverpool

By on March 2, 2017

mesut ozil arsenal

It’s been another hectic day of team and injury news at Arsenal HQ so I thought I’d bring you a round-up ahead of our trip to Liverpool this weekend.

Arsene Wenger held his pre-match press conference this morning and he confirmed that Ramsey is back in contention after returning to full training this week.

The Welshman has missed our last four games with a calf injury that he sustained in late January but he’s set to return to the squad on Saturday – although I think we’ll see him named among the subs.

In a huge double boost, Koscielny is also available again after making a swift recovery from a hamstring injury that forced him off against Bayern Munich last month.

The French international is back in full training so I expect he’ll come straight back in to the starting eleven alongside Mustafi against Liverpool this weekend.

The boss also confirmed that Giroud will be back in the squad on Saturday after missing the Sutton United game while Welbeck is also in contention after not being risked on the non-league clubs 3G pitch last month.

Instead, Welbeck continued to work on his fitness with a couple of appearances for our U23’s after Wenger took advice from the clubs medical team to ease him back in to action.

Danny Welbeck

But Danny is now in the frame to face Liverpool and he could line-up alongside Ozil with the German playmaker expected to recover from a bout of flu.

Ozil was sent home from training on Wednesday and told to rest-up but Wenger believes the 28-year-old ‘should be OK’ to take on Liverpool this weekend.

However, there wasn’t such positive news on the fitness of Elneny as the midfielder has been ruled out for three weeks after sustaining an ankle injury against Sutton.

Wenger told Arsenal.com:

on who’s back for the Liverpool game…
We have Aaron Ramsey back in the squad. He’s back in full training. Laurent Koscielny, who we lost at Bayern Munich, is back in full training as well.

on Mohamed Elneny…
Elneny has an ankle problem that should be sorted out in three weeks. He got injured at Sutton and will not be available for Saturday’s game.

on Olivier Giroud…
Olivier Giroud is back in the squad as well.

on whether Danny Welbeck is ready to start…
He’s in contention. Yes [we’ve been careful] because he had ups and downs with his response to his knee problem. I followed the advice of our medical staff.

on whether Ozil will play at Liverpool…
We’ll see. I don’t know. He should be OK.

So the squad is in pretty decent shape heading in to what is going to be a pivotal game in our quest to finish in the top four with just five points separating second from sixth.

In the Premier League betting news, Arsenal are unsurprisingly long odds to challenge Chelsea for the title but we’re 10/11 to finish in the top four yet again. The worrying thing is United are also on offer at the same odds while Liverpool are evens to finish in the top four so it shows you just how close it’s going to be to qualify for the Champions League next season.