Wenger blames himself for Wilshere, Ramsey’s injury-plagued careers

Arsene Wenger has revealed he feels partly to blame for the injury-hit careers of former Arsenal stars Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey.

Wenger, 71, who left The Emirates in 2018, claims that as manager he was responsible for maintaining the fitness of his players.

But Arsenal players were often sidelined with injury, with Abou Diaby and Tomas Rosicky two others who regularly joined Wilshere and Ramsey on the treatment table.

In fact, Wilshere spent the entire 2011-12 season out with an ankle injury, while Ramsey broke his leg aged 19 in a match at Stoke.

Speaking about how VAR has impacted the protection of attacking players, Wenger shared his guilt.

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He told The Telegraph: “I see more positivity. Before there was more kicking and I must say the media allowed that. The VAR has brought more respect for the offensive game.

“Sometimes the more technical guys were kicked. Why? It was not very encouraging. We have moved forward from that.

“We [Arsenal] always tried. It was frustrating sometimes. When I look back at players like Wilshere, Ramsey who have been injured early in their career and when you are a manager you feel very responsible for that.”

Wilshere never truly recovered from his first ankle stress fracture and played just 19 league games in three seasons between 2014 and 2017.

He was released by Arsenal in 2018 but has not played regularly since, and at 29-years-old he finds himself without a club.

The midfielder even considered retirement after being let go by Bournemouth at the end of last season.

Likewise, Ramsey has struggled with injury issues throughout his career and been forced to miss key games for Arsenal, Juventus and Wales in recent years.

His Arsenal career was even ended abruptly after he sustained a hamstring injury in April 2019.