Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will miss England’s fixtures against Lithuania and Italy at the end of the month, together with Arsenal’s next three matches, after scans confirmed that he had suffered a grade one hamstring tear in Monday night’s FA Cup win at Manchester United.
It is the least serious tear on the spectrum but it will rule him out for three or four weeks, with the midfielder targeting a return in the Premier League game against Liverpool at Emirates Stadium on 4 April.
Oxlade-Chamberlain had been lively in the 2-1 quarter-final win over United, repaying the manager, Arsène Wenger, for including him in the line-up ahead of Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey and Tomas Rosicky. He set up the opening goal for Nacho Monreal but he was forced off in the 51st minute.
Wenger has said that Jack Wilshere has yet to return to full training after surgery to remove studs from his ankle and, as such, he will not feature in the home fixture against West Ham United on Saturday. Wenger will also be without Gabriel Paulista because of hamstring trouble but Mathieu Flamini could return from a similar problem.
Arsenal visit Monaco in the Champions League last 16 on Tuesday – when they will seek to overturn a 3-1 first-leg deficit – while they play Newcastle United at St James’ Park on Saturday week before the international break.
England’s match against Lithuania at Wembley is a Euro 2016 qualifier. They then go to Turin for a friendly with Italy.
