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Arsenal forward Theo Walcott faces six months out and will miss the World Cup

Image: Theo Walcott: Out for at least six months with a knee injury

Arsenal and England forward Theo Walcott must undergo surgery on a serious knee injury and faces at least six months on the sidelines, ruling him out of the World Cup.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger must now decide whether to go into the transfer market to boost his attacking options, with strikers Olivier Giroud and Nicklas Bendtner also having suffered injuries. Speaking last week, Walcott acknowledged that he would welcome any additions after Fulham's Dimitar Berbatov was linked with a move to the Emirates. Walcott said of the situation: "To be fair that is for the manager to decide if he wants to go out and buy anyone, whoever will come to the club in January, if not it is going to make the club stronger anyway. "It is always nice to have competition with players coming in, but January is such a difficult period in the transfer market to get players in, especially the top players. "The boss has already said that he is looking for special players and we have got a lot of special players in that dressing room." Wenger had been impressed by Walcott's performance against Spurs after the former Southampton youngster was handed the job of leading the line. "I liked what Theo did because he played before in that role, but against Spurs he added purpose and commitment, more decisiveness to his game and a more fighting attitude," said Wenger. "With that, he looks every time like he improves in that position and with the quality of players behind him, he can be very dangerous in that position."

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