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Alexis Sanchez Injury No Longer A Blessing For Arsenal
By Josh Sippie
Alexis Sanchez is not yet fully healed and Arsenal will be without his services for at least the duration of the weekend. When will the setbacks end?
When Alexis Sanchez first went down with a seemingly not very serious injury, it was seen as a potential blessing. There was a high risk of the Chilean running himself ragged to the point of exhaustion and not being fully equipped to last the duration of the season. Wenger had flirted with the idea of giving him a winter break, but that always seemed unlikely.
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Then, he strained his hamstring. No big deal. Give him a few weeks. Well, a few weeks turned into a month. But that was perfectly fine. Arsenal was actually coping rather well without him and hamstrings are pesky injuries. Best to let it completely and fully heal before bringing him back. There was no need to risk him.
Just when we thought he was getting better, Arsene Wenger has hit us with a bit of unfortunate news.
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“The bad news of the week is that Alexis is not quite ready. It is a precaution because of his hamstring, and it takes a few more days. He’s not bad but he’s not ready,” Le Prof said, as quoted by the Guardian. Alexis was supposed to be ready to suit up against Sunderland but as is the trend with Arsenal, setbacks are an incredibly real part of life.
It is past the point of this injury being a blessing. Mesut Ozil has been spurring this team on but he is at the point where he does not even train. Why? Fear of injury. Everything about Arsenal screams ‘fear of injury’. Alexis is needed back. He is a workhorse and can shoulder a major portion of the workload, alleviating all those who have had to pick up the slack.
To make matters even more worrisome, Wenger has shown no intention of sending out a tame squad against Sunderland in the FA Cup.
“The thinking is to give absolutely everything to qualify,” he noted. Sounds like Arsenal will be seeing the likes of Ozil and Giroud on the pitch. Mainly because they don’t exactly have anyone else.
This is a dire situation. With a Premier League match staring us in the face on Wednesday, we are again left gritting our teeth and hoping that no more injuries strike.
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It looks like Arsene Wenger has no intention of adding another attacker in the January window. Therefore Alexis has to serve as that transfer and get right back into the swing of things.