JACK WILSHERE’S career is turning out to be a series of “What ifs”.
- What if the England midfielder had been 100 per cent fit at the Euros?
- What if he had made more than three appearances for Arsenal in the Premier League last season?
- What if he was fit and raring to go against Liverpool at the Emirates on Sunday?
Instead it is a familiar story, with Wilshere consigned to the sidelines yet again, this time nursing a short-term knee injury.
This is supposed to be a minor setback but they always say that, especially where Wilshere is concerned.
The Arsenal midfielder said: “I know my body better than ever now, and I know what it can and can’t do.
“It can do most things — it just can’t go into ridiculous challenges.
“It’s more difficult in a game, but in training I can take myself out of those situations quite easily.
“I give my all and sometimes if I overstretch for something I do open myself up to an injury.
“But it is something I will definitely be working on by not going into challenges that are 20-80.”
This is a big season for Wilshere, a chance to establish himself as first pick for club and country again.
He was missing for most of last season after fracturing an ankle in a training-ground collision with defender Gabriel.
Wilshere said: “That was the frustrating thing. It wasn’t in the Community Shield, it wasn’t in the Premier League, it was in a training session.
“Going into stupid tackles is one thing I will be avoiding. The main one for me is to play as many games as I can until Christmas, then re-assess at Christmas.
Related Articles
“I don’t want to be setting any ridiculous targets.”
Just as well, then.
Roy Hodgson gambled at the end of the season, picking Wilshere for his England Euro 2016 squad when he was short of match practice and shorter on breath.
England were out in a puff of smoke, heading home in disgrace after that shameful loss to Iceland. Wilshere came on at half-time, sent on to rescue the game when England had gone behind.
The national team froze — again — and were knocked out.
Wilshere added: “We didn’t perform on the day and we were punished for that.
“It was tough to take because we felt we should have beaten them. The manager came in after and left straight away, so as a team we felt responsible.
“The worst thing that could have happened was us lose the game and the manager leave and that happened, it was just a bad day all round.”
It was more than that, but the next international break will be another opportunity to comb through the issues at the heart of the national team.
To Wilshere’s credit he always bounces back, speaking with remarkable enthusiasm for a player who has missed so many matches — and had so many setbacks — throughout his career.
For the moment he is just concentrating on the Premier League and helping Arsenal to go one better this time around. He added: “The squad is strong enough to win it. We have added Granit Xhaka, which is a good signing.
“People forget that in the past we have added big players like Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, and they are still in the prime of their careers.
“We finished second last year and we are confident that we can take any team on in this league.
“It will be interesting to see how Leicester deal with the pressure of being a team now that everyone knows is capable of winning.
“They will get treated different, they will get more respect.
“Also they will have to deal with the Champions League as well, which is going to be difficult.
“There are teams who were not involved in the title race last year — Man United and Chelsea dropped off quite early — but they’ve all improved.
“Now it’s down to them, down to us to respond.”
If they do not, it will be back to the “What ifs”.
Leave a comment