New injury puts Wilshere out for season and in doubt for Euros

ARSENAL midfielder Jack Wilshere has suffered a further injury setback that not only puts him in doubt for the rest of the Gunners' season but also makes him unlikely to appear for England at the Euro 2012 competition. 

Wilshere had been expected to return this month, six months after undergoing surgery on a stress fracture in his ankle. Now, following what looked like a minor training ground injury last week, further tests have shown he has another stress fracture in the same area. This will likely put his recovery back to square one.

As the Daily Mail reports, it is very doubtful that he will be on the pitch for the opening Euro 2012 match against France on 11 June - troubling news for England manager Fabio Capello, who had hoped to build his team around the young playmaker.

More immediately though, it is grave news for Arsene Wenger, whose misfiring Gunners are struggling to reach a top-four Champions League qualification spot in the Premier League this season.

Wilshere had a breakthrough time of it last year, ending the 2010-11 campaign as Arsenal's player of the season. It had been hoped that the precocious talents of the all-round midfielder would lessen the impact of Cesc Fabregas's departure to Barcelona last summer.

Instead Wilshere has been forced to watch from the stands, along with a troubling number of other Arsenal players. At times, the Gunners' first team injury list has stretched into double figures.

Yesterday it was announced that Wenger had signed the attacking midfielder Thomas Eisfeld from Borussia Dortmund. While the 19-year-old has impressed for the German team's Under-19 squad, the Daily Mirror notes he has no proven first team experience. If Wenger is hoping to call on his new boy to shore up an increasingly sparse midfield, Eisfeld needs to grow into some very big boots very quickly. ·