Arsenal injury news: Jack Wilshere suffers apparent setback

Arsenal may be without the services of midfielder Jack Wilshere for a bit longer than anticipated, as the former Medical Miracle felt a pain in his ankle whilst running yesterday, according to Arsène Wenger:

"He had a little setback. We are investigating it at the moment and don't know how bad it is," Wenger said. "He sees a specialist today. He has pain again in his ankle. We stopped him straight away. He did it running."

At this point, there is no prognosis, but the expected return to training in a couple of weeks is off the table, most likely. More after the jump:

The injury obviously does not help Arsenal in an area where the team has been found wanting lately, as chances have dried up from the midfield over the past couple of months. There are alternatives that have yet to be really tried there in the league, such as Andrei Arshavin, Tomas Rosicky, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. It's becoming more and more clear this term that Aaron Ramsey isn't going to magically become an advanced playmaker--his skillset is more conducive to making late runs onto passes coming from others, rather than making the passes himself. Abou Diaby is a lost soul at this point, and not a passer either.

There is little point in speculating about the setback. It's easy to assign blame to the physios--lord knows, I have been spewing anger towards them all morning, but I'm also an irrational short-temper grump (see blog name)--but really, nobody knows anything. There are probably 100 variables at work in any injury. What we do know is that the Emirates pitch is very hard on joints, young players, if overused, are prone to breaking down, and Wilshere is constantly under siege from players trying to take the ball off of him.

Nobody knows. It's frustrating, but nobody knows. This does not mean that I don't want to smash up my office with a broomstick, but nobody knows.

Get well soon, Mr. Wilshere--and please don't be out forever.