Arsène Wenger has given a full injury update ahead of tomorrow afternoon’s match against Sunderland on the opening game of the 2012/13 Premier League season.

No team wants to start with such a long injury list at the beginning of a new season, but hopefully many of these players are only out for the short-term. The good news is that Mikel Arteta and Theo Walcott should both be back in the squad. The bad news is that we still have 6 players out; Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Laurent Koscielny are both suffering from injuries picked up against FC Koln, while Wihslere, Rosicky and Sagna are all nursing long-term injuries.

Jack Wilshere, Tomas Rosicky & Bacary Sagna

“They are all doing well but of course they are not available tomorrow. It is good news for them all though. Jack is moving very well and quickly forward now. Rosicky is running, Sagna is running too. They should all be available soon. It is more or less a month for all of them to start training properly.”

Mikel Arteta

“He is fit and available.”

Emmanuel Frimpong

“He is three weeks until he is training so that is a bit ahead of schedule. It is very good. We think he will be back competitively in October.”

Theo Walcott

“We have to assess Walcott, who had to pull out of the national team. But he should be OK to play.”

Laurent Koscielny & Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

“We miss Koscielny and Oxlade-Chamberlain for the injuries they got in the last game against Cologne. They had to pull out of their respective national teams as well so those two will miss the game tomorrow. Oxlade-Chamberlain has an ankle problem, Koscielny a calf. Both have a chance to be fit for Stoke.”

General Team News

“We have a few tests today because some players came back today [from internationals] and played 90 minutes, like Cazorla in Puerto Rico. Some players like Song have little knocks. We will see about them today.”

A full match preview (team news, predicted starting XI, score prediction etc…) will be published later this evening.