Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Per Mertesacker will not feature for Arsenal for ‘months’ after undergoing surgery on a knee injury picked up in Lens.

The news will come as a massive blow for both the player, who looked set to be named captain (and probably still will be knowing how little Wenger cares about the role) and the club who now have to look seriously at reinforcements.

Speaking to the official website, Wenger said, “We have bad news on Per Mertesacker. He played in Lens on Friday night, he finished the game and had a little pain on his knee. We found out the next day that it was much more serious than expected.

“He had surgery yesterday in Germany. It all went well. I know you will ask me for how long he will be out. I don’t know that, it’s [some] months, but I don’t know [exactly] how long he will be out for.”

Rob Holding has, of course, already been signed and is an immensely talented player.

Will he be trusted or will the club look to sign someone else?

Gabriel and Calum Chambers also give the boss options, not ideal, but options nonetheless. Wenger has said that they will look to bring someone in, but as far as we were aware, they were looking to do that anyway. He added, “We have to look for an option to get a bit more experience. We will see some of our young centre backs on Thursday as well.

“With Per being out, we are a bit short on the experience front and we are looking to bring somebody in.”

We will see what specifics we can find out about Per’s injury and update on site.