OPINION
Jack Wilshere has been extremely unlucky with his injury record over the course of his career, and his latest blow could turn out to be one of the most damaging so far.
The 26-year-old midfielder had enjoyed a positive start to life at new club West Ham after taking the bold decision to leave boyhood club Arsenal, but that was cut short by his latest injury.
Despite his personal displays being positive overall, the Hammers as a team had suffered a terrible start to the campaign, going pointless in the Premier League in their first four games.
It wasn’t until after Wilshere’s injury that they got their season off the ground with a 3-1 win over Everton before a 0-0 draw against Chelsea and a huge 3-1 win over Manchester United.
While they did just lose their last game against Brighton, it has been a brilliant turnaround from Manuel Pellegrini’s side, and tellingly, it has all happened with Wilshere missing.
According to Claret and Hugh, Wilshere is now on course to return by the end of the month, with the fixture against Burnley on the 3rd of November the target for his first-team comeback.
Wilshere may however be in for a rude awakening when he does get back to fitness, with a midfield trio of Mark Noble, Declan Rice and Pedro Obiang clicking in recent weeks.
Pellegrini will unfortunately be unwilling to risk breaking that trio up unless results nosedive after the international break, and that could see the £100,000-a-week midfielder [Silly Season] confined to a bench role for the foreseeable future.
Obviously he will likely get back in the team at some point, but he cannot expect to walk straight back into the team when you consider results with him and without him.
This latest setback for Wilshere may therefore be a more damaging one than first thought, and he may have to bide his time before he gets another shot at regular first-team football.
