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Arsene Wenger defends Arsenal's Mesut Ozil injury diagnosis

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed Mesut Ozil could return from a knee ligament injury sooner than originally estimated.

Ozil, 26, discovered a problem after joining up with the Germany squad for international duty last week.

The German FA estimated the playmaker's recovery from a partial rupture of the outer band of the left knee joint would take up to 12 weeks.

But Wenger said: "He is out for a while now, I think at least six weeks."

The revised estimate would see Ozil miss Saturday's Premier League match with Hull City, as well as games against Anderlecht and Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, and Manchester United in the Premier League.

The Arsenal games Ozil may miss Oct 18: Hull (h) Nov 4: Anderlecht (h) Oct 22: Anderlecht (a) Nov 9: Swansea (a) Oct 25: Sunderland (a) Nov 22: Man United (h) Nov 1: Burnley (h) Nov 26: Borussia Dortmund (h)

The former Real Madrid player picked up the injury during Arsenal's 2-0 defeat at Chelsea on 5 October.

But Wenger said the German did not reveal any problem at the time.

"I didn't even know about it," he said. "At half-time, just before we went out, the physio told me he had a little pain in his knee, but it's not bad and he wanted to go on.

"I told him 'if you don't feel well tell me and I will take you off straight away', but he never did and I left him on because we needed to find a goal."

Wenger also confirmed that Wales international midfielder Aaron Ramsey will be back in full training on Monday.