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Wilshere stuck in never-ending cycle

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Image for Wilshere stuck in never-ending cycle

OPINION

West Ham United midfielder Jack Wilshere has to be one of the unluckiest footballers we’ve seen in the Premier League since it was established.

The 34-cap international has an unbelievable skill set, and flashed world class potential as a young player, but he has been pegged back repeatedly by injuries.

That trend continued last week, with Hammers manager Manuel Pellegrini confirming after his team’s 1-1 draw with Sheffield United that the 27-year-old had suffered another setback.

“Jack had a small problem in his groin,” he said, as per Football London. “It’s not important but he was not 100 per cent. It was similar to what happened with Cresswell last week. But he will continue working with us in the next week without any problem.”

It’s only a small problem, as Pellegrini says, but the former Arsenal man must be wondering what more he can do in his bid to put his injury problems behind him.

Wilshere eschewed an extended summer break after the end of last season in a bid to get back up to full fitness quicker and to move on from the setbacks that plagued his debut season in east London. However, his injury issues have once again reared their ugly head.

Over the last decade, Wilshere has missed 185 games through injury, spread out amongst 1,206 days on the sidelines [Source: Transfermarkt]. That is a colossal amount of time for anyone, and it must be phenomenally frustrating for the Englishman at this point.

Again, it must be stressed that this is only a small problem, as Pellegrini says, but his incomparable stretch of bad luck merely continued last week.

Whether he will ever be able to truly cement himself in this West Ham team when he constantly picks up niggling little injuries remains to be seen, but things are starting to look very dark indeed for the midfielder.

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