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Wenger sweating over fitness of attacker ahead of Watford trip

By on October 15, 2015
Alexis Sanchez

Image: Mirror

Arsene Wenger is sweating over the fitness of Alexis Sanchez after he played twice for Chile during the international break while carrying a hip injury.

Sanchez limped out of our 3-0 thrashing of Manchester United two weeks ago after picking up a hip problem during the closing stages of the game.

The 26-year-old was granted permission to join-up with his national team squad ahead of their World Cup qualifiers against Brazil and Peru and the Chile manager admitted he took a risk playing Alexis in both games after acknowledging he wasn’t 100% fit.

Sanchez completed both matches and thankfully he showed no sign of injury after scoring three goals but Arsene is still anxious to see what his condition is ahead of our trip to Watford.

The boss is quoted as saying by the Mirror:

“I cannot do a lot about it. He came off as you have seen against Manchester United with a hip problem, a problem with the rotator muscle and he wanted to go.

“He played in the last two games and we have to see how he comes back but it is always a tricky situation Chile are trying to qualify for the World Cup and he is an important player for them but they will use him if they can.

“He is a guy that always wants to play so I knew that was always going to be a tricky situation.

“Let’s see what happens and how he comes back. He comes back at 2pm today and I don’t think there is a lot you can do because he played. We have to see if we have to protect him in our next game or not.

“He has a bit of a difficult start to the season because he came back late and you could see that but now he is back to his level and even better than before. His overall game and finishing, contributing and assists is excellent.

“He works hard for the team and he finishes. His enthusiasm is contagious. He always gives you hope that he is going to do something and he gets defenders always on the back foot, provokes and that is top class.”

I think it was wholly unprofessional of the Chile boss to play Sanchez while he was carrying an injury but it looks as though we’ve got away with it and he hasn’t aggravated the problem.

Arsene said yesterday that Alexis had text him to say he was fine so fingers crossed that’s the case when he’s assessed by our medical team upon his arrival this afternoon.