Arsène Wenger has admitted the loss of Santi Cazorla to injury for at least three months is “very bad news”, with the Arsenal manager unsure when the Spain midfielder will play again.

Cazorla will travel to Sweden next week for surgery on a plantaris tendon after sustaining the injury in his right ankle in the 6-0 Champions League victory against Ludogorets in October.

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“For me it’s very bad news,” said Wenger. “You always know the date of the surgery but never the date where the player will play again. I always try to put absolutely everything in place to avoid surgery because it creates anxiety and rehab. When you can avoid it, you have to avoid it. Now they tell me that he will be out for two months at least, but two months can sometimes be three as well.

“He has an inflammation at the back of his foot. Nobody really knows where it comes from. The anti-inflammatory injections have not got rid of it. The surgeon decided to have an exploratory surgery, that means open and see what’s going on in there. He’s desperate to play football. He’s only happy on the football pitch. I’ve spoken to him, of course. He himself wants to get out of that vicious circle of going out and coming in again. He just wants to cure it.”

Arsenal travel to West Ham on Saturday with doubts over Olivier Giroud and Mohamed Elneny. It is the first time they have visited the London Stadium and Wenger has warned West Ham that it takes years to feel at home after a big move.

“It’s a bit like when we moved to the Emirates,” he said. “You feel a bit like you’re playing on neutral ground for a while. It takes a few years, because you have to make memories and build a little history. You move from somewhere full of history, and suddenly you move to a stadium where nothing happened before you came in. You feel a bit lonely there.

“You have to rebuild the environment. You can try, but you cannot create something artificially that doesn’t exist.”

Wenger recalled how his players even missed the orientation that they had become used to at Highbury. “When they played at Highbury, they kind of had a picture. When you play up front you know where the goal is, because of the signals coming from the crowd, you know where the adverts are and sometimes you have no time to make your decision, but you have a geographical reference when you stand on the pitch that is linked to the stadium. You have to recreate that.”

Wenger admits that Upton Park was a favourite place to visit, particularly when he first arrived in England 20 years ago. “I preferred the first version of the West Ham stadium, when he was very tight, one the most intimidating stadiums I knew.”

West Ham have just two Premier League wins in their first four months at the converted Olympic Stadium, but Wenger is still expecting a challenging evening. “They had a difficult start to the season but recently they’ve picked up with their quality and they played well against Tottenham and Manchester United,” Wenger noted. “They are difficult fixtures so overall it will be a very tight and intense game.”