Danny Welbeck has been ruled out of the Arsenal squad for the Barclays Asia Trophy in Singapore next week because he has still not shaken off the knee injury that kept him on the sidelines at the end of last season.
The striker missed Arsenal’s last six matches, including the FA Cup final victory over Aston Villa, because of bone bruising, and then England’s games against the Republic of Ireland and Slovenia in June. His last appearance was against Chelsea on 26 April.
Welbeck’s injury was initially described by Arsène Wenger, the manager, as being likely to keep him out for a matter of days but it has dragged on, to the frustration of everybody. Welbeck will remain behind in London when the squad depart for Singapore this weekend, and he intends to concentrate on regaining fitness for the new season.
Wenger will take a strong 27-man party to Singapore – where his team face a Singapore Select XI next Wednesday and either Everton or Stoke City on Saturday week – and there are only a clutch of other senior absentees.
Tomas Rosicky will not travel because of a knee injury that he suffered while playing for the Czech Republic against Iceland on 12 June, in a Euro 2016 qualifier that his team lost 2-1, while Wenger has omitted Carl Jenkinson, Joel Campbell, Serge Gnabry and Yaya Sanogo. All of them are expected to be loaned or sold. Jenkinson is close to rejoining West Ham United on loan for the second season in succession.
Alexis Sánchez and David Ospina have also been stood down after their participation at the Copa América for Chile and Colombia respectively. Wenger has included the academy players Daniel Crowley, Chris Willock, Alex Iwobi and Jeff Reine-Adelaide, who recently arrived from Lens.
