Wenger believes in Walcott

Gunners boss backing winger to bounce back from injury

Last updated: 10th September 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Wenger believes in Walcott

Walcott: Ankle injury

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes Theo Walcott is strong enough to bounce back from his latest injury setback.

The England international had started the season in fine form, although he damaged his ankle in Tuesday's victory over Switzerland.

Walcott will be sidelined for at least a month and Wenger is disappointed the 21-year-old is to be out of action when he was hitting peak form.

Wenger knows this latest injury will be a strong mental hurdle for Walcott to jump, although he is backing the youngster to respond to the setback.

"The good news is that the ligament which we were scared could be ruptured is not, but in our job it is still a long-term injury of four to six weeks," said Wenger.

Frustration

"It is more frustrating for him, and you never know what kind of psychological impact it has on the player as well. In our job it is important you are healthy and you play.

"When you are injured, it always stops your progress and gets you set back when you do not have regular games. It is sometimes good to be rested, but to be injured is different."

Wenger continued: "The mental side is always a question mark when a player gets injuries.

"When you are a manager and you see an injury doesn't harm the career of a player, you are happy. After that the only unknown quantity is how much it will damage his confidence in the box, on tackling and all that.

"Ideally, you do not want a player to be injured many times by bad tackles. However, I believe Theo will deal well with that because he has done it before."