Arsenal: Jack Wilshere to return soon as ankle injury is considered a minor one

Jack Wilshere has been handed a major fitness boost after it was revealed that his ankle injury is not as bad as first feared.

The Arsenal midfielder currently on loan with Bournemouth limped off during the latter's 2-0 loss to Manchester City and Eddie Howe confirmed that it was due to a knock on his ankle. Wilshere has a long history of ankle problems, which have seen him miss large chunks of football in recent years and the latest knock raised fears of yet another lengthy layoff.

The Cherries boss was hoping that it was just a minor knock and revealed after the game that his withdrawal was more precautionary rather than it being due to a major injury.

"Jack is just feeling his ankle. I don't think there's a major injury there. He just felt he couldn't move as freely as he wanted to and had a pain in his ankle, so we took him off," Howe said during his post-match press conference after the game against City.

According to the Daily Mail, the England international's injury is a minor one and the midfielder is expected to be available for Bournemouth's trip to the Hawthorns to take on West Bromwich Albion on 25 February.

It will come as a big boost to Wilshere who moved to the south coast club in the summer to get regular game time – something that was not available with Arsenal owing to the number of options Arsene Wenger possessed in midfield. The main motivation for his move, however, was to return to peak fitness, something which he is on course to achieving having made 20 appearances in the league for Cherries thus far while also completing the full 90 minutes on 13 occasions.