Arsenal sweating on Shkodran Mustafi fitness for Southampton as Theo Walcott returns against BATE Borisov

Shkodran Mustafi is Arsenal's only fitness concern heading into a final Europa League Group H contest against BATE Borisov other than long-term absentee Santi Cazorla, with Arsene Wenger hopeful that the centre-back will return for Sunday's (10 December) trip to Southampton.

Mustafi, who had been in impressive form of late, was replaced by Alex Iwobi after only 15 minutes of the 3-1 defeat by Manchester United on Saturday [2 December] due to an injury sustained following a costly blunder that led to the visitors' second early goal.

He appeared to hurt himself while being robbed of possession by Jesse Lingard, with his manager revealing after the full-time whistle that he had no idea what the issue was.

It has now been established that Mustafi is struggling with a minor thigh issue and did not take part in a training session at London Colney on Wednesday [6 December].

The Germany international would have been highly unlikely to feature against BATE anyway with his sole Europa League appearance in 2017-18 to date coming in the original clash with the Belarusian champions back in September.

Arsene Wenger believes Mustafi will definitely be fit for the midweek London derby with West Ham United next Wednesday [13 December] night if he is unable to feature at Southampton.

"Everybody is available," he told reporters in a pre-BATE press conference held on Wednesday, per football.london. "We have just a small problem with Mustafi from Saturday, but everybody else looks alright. Mustafi has a little thigh problem, but it's a small one.

"It's a possibility [that he could be back this weekend]. If not Southampton it will be West Ham."

Wenger also confirmed that Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott would both start on Thursday [7 December] as Arsenal continue their policy of rotation having already sealed top spot in the group with a match to spare despite last month's shock defeat in Cologne.

The latter missed that 1-0 loss in Germany due to illness and has not been involved in a matchday squad since the meeting with Manchester City on 5 November despite being back in full training as transfer speculation continues to circulate ahead of the January window.

"He works very hard to come back into it," explained Wenger, who also described Wilshere's recent ice-skating session as not ideal. "He was sick and after that I didn't change the squad. In training he looks very sharp and I'm sure he will show that tomorrow."

Wenger then hit back at Jose Mourinho's constant jibing and accusations of lies told regarding striker Alexandre Lacazette, who played 90 minutes against United despite having earlier been ruled out of the game with a groin injury that forced him off at half-time of the 5-0 drubbing of Huddersfield Town.

"I thought he wouldn't play but in the end he could," he said. "What did you want me to do? Leave him at home? I'm always honest. I thought really he wouldn't play. That's what I was told. He had a test on Friday morning, then even when he went to the game we weren't sure if he would play.

"But he tried and he played. That's part of football."