Granit Xhaka has seemingly been ruled out of action until 2022, with Arsenal stating that’s when he’s aiming to return to full training.

In a statement on the club website this week, Arsenal confirmed that Granit Xhaka is making good progress in the initial stages of his recovery from a knee ligament injury.

The club went on to add that the current aim is for Xhaka to return to full training early in the New Year.

The update will be a little disappointing to many Arsenal fans, with the original timeframe only ruling Xhaka out until late December and some talk he might even try to return earlier than that.

Based on this latest return schedule, Xhaka is unlikely to be playing again until the second or third week of January.

The good news is that even this rather pessimistic timeframe would still have Xhaka back for the majority of the time Arsenal will be losing Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny to AFCON. That’s obviously when the team will really need him in midfield.

AFCON kicks off on January 9th, and Arsenal play Tottenham Hotspur away from home on January 15th. Losing Partey for that game is a blow, but it would be even worse to be missing Xhaka as well. All we can do now is wait and see how he progresses.