Danny Welbeck: Injured Arsenal striker relishes 'exciting period' after leaving Manchester United

Former Manchester United star Danny Welbeck has claimed his adaptation to Arsenal and life in London has been easy but he still misses his family. The England international is yet to play a game this season due to a knee injury he sustained in April.

The 24-year-old decided to leave his childhood side on deadline day in the summer of 2014 after falling out of favour with United manager Louis van Gaal. Having being at the Old Trafford academy from the age of eight, the forward embraced the new challenge in the capital.

His current season has not been as promising as expected so far due to the injury but Welbeck still hails the move to Arsenal, claiming that despite missing his family, he has got used to his new life due to the help of his teammates, including Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Calum Chambers.

"It makes it easier for you because, like any situation in life, if you go somewhere and see a familiar face then you can obviously bond with them," he told the Arsenal Weekly podcast. "Knowing the England boys from international duty and growing up with them in the youth teams made it easy. They integrate you into the group a lot easier with the other lads as well.

"It was a new challenge but it was an exciting time for me to approach a new situation, move from Manchester to London and all of the stuff that goes with it. It was a whole new city, not completely new as I'd been to London before, but it was weird knowing that I was going to be calling London home and not Manchester.

"The thing that you miss the most is your family and that's the most important thing. A lot of my family and friends do come to London to see me anyway. They come to all the home games so I get to see them quite a lot anyway. But I was leaving something that I knew after growing up in Manchester, coming to a new city, it's an exciting period."

Welbeck enjoyed a promising start to the life in north London during the 2014-15 season after taking advantage of Olivier Giroud's injury to get a striking nine in Arsene Wenger's line-up during the first part of the campaign. However, his adaptation to the Gunners was hampered in the second part of the season after suffering an injury that has kept him sidelined since April.

The striker was expected to return to action earlier in the pre-season but was forced to undergo surgery in September to address recurrent problems in his knee and is not likely to come back to action until 2016.