Wilshere details warning he received at Arsenal that summed up his injury woes

21 March 2024 , 21:19

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Jack Wilshere suffered with injuries throughout his career

Jack Wilshere has revealed doctors told him he might never play again when he was just 19.

Former Arsenal midfielder Wilshere admits he overplayed when he was still a teenager and it caused a "career-threatening" ankle injury.

Wilshere, now on Arsenal's coaching staff, missed the entire 2011/12 season but admitted he wanted to play every single game and there was not the data or science back then to raise alarm bells. He was forced to retire from playing at 30.

England international Wilshere, 32, on the William Hill Up Front podcast, said: "After that 2010/11 season when I picked up my injury, I was never the same player, I played with physical pain every single day. Mentally I was still there, probably a little bit stronger in that respect, but it was a bad injury, one that was career-threatening.

"The doctors hadn't really seen it before and they had to get two surgeons in and I went from this kid who was just playing football and loving it every day, playing in the Champions League with no fear and then it was just taken all away from me.

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"I'm sitting in front of two doctors and they're telling me that I might never play again. I think maybe I played too much, but I remember in the first year that they implemented the GPS into training to track us and people said they understood it, but they didn't really.

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Jack Wilshere has discussed the highs and lows of his Arsenal career (Sky Sports)

"They speak about the 'red zone' these days and if a player is in that red zone, then they're in danger, but I remember having conversations with medical staff and they told me I may need to take my foot off the gas and I'm there saying, 'What? I'm an 18-year-old who's playing week in week out in the Premier League, that's not happening!'"

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