Danny Welbeck Unable to Train at 100%, Says Arsene Wenger

Danny Welbeck has not been able to train at his 100% since suffering several major knee injuries, according to manager Arsene Wenger.


Even though the club has been struggling for form, they have not been able to utilise the presence of Welbeck in the squad. The 26-year-old has made just nine appearances in the league this season. Most of these has come as a substitute. Welbeck has played very little football for Arsenal since joining the club in a £16 million from Arsenal. Since making 34 appearances in his first campaign, the forward has played in just 26 games in the last two campaigns.

Wenger has confirmed that the player has been struggling with lack of 100% fitness ever since he returned from a long-term injury. It has prevented him from training at the very top level. Arsenal will realistically aim to get Welbeck back in the first-team in a regular basis from next season onwards.

Even with all the injury problems, Arsenal are unlikely to give up on Welbeck considering that he has shown possess the quality required to score goals on a regular basis. However, Welbeck could be coming back into the first-team in a completely different circumstances, as Arsenal may be without the Champions League football next season and without Arsene Wenger too.

“Recently he has not practised a lot because he had a pain in his toe and needed to be stopped from training. I don't play him at the moment regularly because he's not fully consistently present in training. Yes, certainly (it is frustrating). I think it's quite special. You look at the numbers, we are the team that has scored more goals than anybody else in the final part of games. We have the highest number, by far, to have scored in the final 10 minutes of games, more than anybody else in this league,” said Wenger ahead of the North London Derby.