Jack Wilshere could face ankle ligament surgery and a lay-off of around three months. The Arsenal midfielder will meet with a specialist in the coming days and the decision will be taken as to whether he needs the operation to repair the damage to his left ankle he suffered after a challenge from Manchester United's Paddy McNair.

If Arsenal feel Wilshere can be fully rehabilitated without the surgery, he would be back in action sooner but he would still most likely miss around eight weeks.

Arsenal are clinging to the hope that, like Olivier Giroud, who returned as a goal-scoring substitute in the 2-1 loss to United weeks ahead of schedule after fracturing his tibia in late August, Wilshere could yet make a speedy recovery.

But it did not take long in the company of Arsene Wenger on Tuesday to feel it was wishful thinking. The Wilshere update cast a shadow over the club's preparations for their Champions League home tie against Borussia Dortmund, in which they need a point to ensure their progress to the next phase of the competition for the 15th year in succession.

Wenger stopped short of castigating McNair but it was clear he felt the 19-year-old had erred with the decision to lunge in on Wilshere. “I don’t think it was a tackle with the desire to hurt, I think he went for the ball but it was a late tackle,” Wenger said. “It was a bad foul.”

Injuries

Wenger will also be without goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny, against Dortmund because of the hip injury forced him off against United and the winger Theo Walcott, who continues to feel a groin problem after his long-term absence following cruciate knee ligament surgery. With the back-up goalkeeper, David Ospina also out, Wenger will turn to the inexperienced Emiliano Martinez.

Danny Welbeck is a doubt with a minor knee injury and he did not train on Tuesday, although Wenger will name him in the squad while Giroud is ineligible, having not been named on the Champions League list as he was not expected to be fit until the New Year.

However, Wenger insisted the quality in his team would show. “When you are such a long time in football as I am, you don’t understand anymore what crisis means,” he said, with a smile. “I must get to the dictionary and look at it well again . . . This is one of the best teams I’ve had for a long time.”

Wenger said Laurent Koscielny had made a surprise return to training after his trouble with tendinitis in his achilles and he would be in the squad while Aaron Ramsey believes he is over his injury problems. Guardian Service