Arsenal boss, Arsene Wenger, has admitted that he regrets not inserting a release clause in the deal that saw Jack Wilshere join Bournemouth on a season-long loan.
Wenger is currently facing an injury crisis in central midfielder, with Aaron Ramsey out for 21 days with a calf injury. He will miss Saturday’s trip to Chelsea as well as their Champions League last-16 first-leg clash at Bayern Munich.
Mohammed Elneny is away at the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon, where his country has qualified for the final while Granit Xhaka is serving a four-game ban.
“We have agreed for him to go for one year on loan and we accept that,” Wenger said about Wilshere.
“Yes [we could do with him back at the moment] but I would like to reiterate that we didn’t push him out – he wanted to go somewhere and play and I agreed with that.
“He wanted to go because of the level of competitive players we have in midfield. Let’s not forget that at the moment we have [Granit] Xhaka suspended.
“There is a huge level of competition and I accepted to let him go. We have to deal with the consequences of that.
“Yes, we are a bit short at the moment, but I think we have young players who can do well in there.
“We have Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, we have Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who can play in there. Mohamed Elneny will come back after the weekend so we still have some strengths. So we should be okay in there
