When the news broke that Jack Wilshere had missed the plane for Amsterdam due to an injury in training, no-one was surprised.
The only surprising thing was that it’s taken him until almost the end of March to pick up an injury this season.
It’s believed to be a small problem – the flare up of a tendon was the first report before it was then claimed to be a knee knock in the Daily Mail – that should settle in a couple of days (the Guardian are reporting the problem as tendinopathy).
He has returned to Arsenal for assessment but is expected to be fit to face Italy on Tuesday night, but that is irrelevant.
TENDINOPATHY refers to a disease of a tendon. The clinical presentation includes tenderness on palpation and pain, often when exercising or with movement [via Wikipedia].
So is the fact that England’s game tonight is only a friendly.
That doesn’t matter.
The injury and it’s timing highlights how hard it is to rely on a player with Wilshere’s history and while he has been much improved this season, a few months versus a career of injury woes does not warrant the massive payrise he is insisting on.
This seems to be Huss Fahmy’s thinking as well.
Jack has reportedly given the club another chance to rethink their offer and, at the very least, offer him a deal with a basic salary equal to the £110kpw he’s on. Arsenal want him to drop to £80k or £90k depending on who you read, with the deal loaded with performance-related incentives.
Can you blame them?
In the three seasons before 17/18, Wilshere missed 74 games
Since his last contract was signed at the end of 2012, he’s missed 91 through injury.
That means Arsenal have paid him 100% of his wages while he has only been available for approximately 70% of their games. A 25% paycut hardly seems unreasonable given those stats and the length of time the problems have persisted.
I love Jack and want him to stay, but I can see where Arsenal are coming from and this latest setback, no matter how small, will simply reinforce the club’s position that Wilshere is too much of a risk to commit £110kpw to for the next four or five years.