Arsene Wenger has reiterated that Jack Wilshere’s absence through injury is primarily precautionary, taking into account his history and the 17 months he spent out of the game.

Although it seems Jack himself would play on, the club have reacted to regular scans fearing that a similar stress fracture may occur in his other ankle. At his pre-Bayern press conference, the boss said, “Normally, if he had not had his history, you should say maybe he can go on. But with the history we had last time, the specialist said we cannot take this gamble.

“It was bone bruising last time, which deteriorated into a stress fracture. That is what we don’t want to happen, nobody knows if it was going to happen again.

“We do a regular scan on him and, on one of the scans, it showed up bone bruising on the heel on the right foot. He had some inflammation on the right ankle, where he had surgery, and certainly compensated to protect that ankle, and put too much pressure on the left one.

“Every month, he has a scan of the two ankles because you ask him how he is and he says, ‘Perfect.'”

And with an Interlull on the way, the boss is hopeful that Wilshere will only miss one of the ten important league games Arsenal have left.

“Hopefully, for the Premier League he will only miss one game, because after is an international break and hopefully we can slowly prepare him.

“Maybe this is a good learning process for us. Maybe after 20 games, to give him a breather of one or two games and then come back will be good.”

Let’s hope so.