Unai Emery on Koscielny: The Arsenal manager stated that Laurent Koscielny is closer to return to action.
Unai Emery interacted with media for the pre-match conference ahead of the game against Bournemouth earlier today.
Arsenal are currently 5th in the Premier League table, and three points behind rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Their form in the league has been frustrating as even when Arsenal are unbeaten since the loss to Chelsea in August, the Gunners were held to a draw in their last three games.
Unai Emery’s side will aim to close the gap with the top-four as they return to Premier League action on Sunday.
As Emery addressed various issues in the media interaction, he also talked about Koscielny’s return to football.
Unai Emery on Koscielny:
Laurent Koscielny has been out of action since May last season, when he suffered Achilles injury. The Arsenal captain also missed the World Cup in France, and eventually retired from international football last month.
Koscielny, however, is making a good recovery from his injury, and Unai Emery provided an update over his return.
“He started to train with us, every day, one month ago,” Emery began. “The process with him is that in this International break, it is to finish training with us every day to start playing, little by little.
“First, our idea is to start with the Under-23s, but also, these two weeks training with us, I am looking at him. He is well, with good performance, good feeling and I think he, today, is close to also play with us.
“But the first idea is, and maybe on Monday, he can play with the 23s. We are going to decide tomorrow the plan with him, but we are thinking for him to start to take minutes.”
Interestingly, after his injury, Koscielny also stated that he expects to be back by November.
“In 5 months, I could certainly retouch the ball,” Koscielny said in May. “Then it will take one month of physical preparation with, matches with the U23’s.
“I hope to play again in November. It must proceed in stages & I’ll follow the protocol carefully. ‘step by step,’ as they say in England,” Koscielny said.
