Arsene Wenger was grilled over Jack Wilshere’s future during his pre-Huddersfield press conference on Tuesday morning.
Although Wenger previously revealed that a decision will be made over Jack’s future in December, the boss still isn’t willing to give anything away about whether the 25-year-old will stay in north London past January. However, Wenger claims he will do what’s best for the midfielder.
Jack’s potentially poised to make his first Premier League start of the season against Huddersfield seeing as Mesut Ozil could miss out through illness. Wenger insists that the reason he hasn’t picked Jack is purely down to his fitness, as the midfielder is famously injury-prone.
“For him, I’ve repeated it many times, it’s just about being fit,” Wenger said. “He’s considered like any other player in the squad. He’s at that level now that every opportunity he gets is a good chance for him to commit for a long-term future.”
Although Jack is injury-prone and I understand Wenger wanting to introduce him back to the Premier League gradually, he officially returned in August. If it’s taking this long for him to fight back into the first team after recovering from injury, does he still have a place at the club? Or is he just wasting his own time?
Jack’s played just 48 minutes in the Premiership this season and that’s been over three appearances. He played 23 minutes against Burnley during Arsenal’s 1-0 win on Sunday so perhaps Wenger was seeing how he fared ahead of our midweek game.
We’ll find out soon enough.