Wenger bemoans injury-hit midfield: 'I could use Wilshere now'

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is ruing his decision to let Jack Wilshere leave on a season-long loan to Bournemouth after seeing the Colney treatment room crowd with midfielders.

Usually a place all too familiar for the oft-injured Wilshere, the 25-year-old is instead fit and in form for the Cherries while Wenger is left to deal with injuries to Santi Cazorla, Francis Coquelin, and Mesut Ozil. Mohamed Elneny is also training with Egypt ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations.

"Yes, I could use Wilshere now," Wenger told the Guardian's Michael Butler. "What looks unfair at some moment in the season is that you know at some stage you could need the player.

"But even at the start you need to have the right balance between competition and numbers, and chances for the player to play. And still today I think it was the right decision for him to go."

A positive that can be taken is that Arsenal has no league commitments until its Jan. 14 trip to Swansea City, with odds for Saturday's FA Cup clash at second-tier Preston North End stacked in the Gunners' favour.

For that match, Wenger will have to shuffle the pack. Jeff Reine-Adelaide, the exciting 18-year-old talent from the suburbs of Paris, will be pushing for inclusion alongside other senior players that are natural in the middle, such as Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka.

The French tactician is cautious in deploying Xhaka, however, due to his indiscipline being to blame for two recent penalties against Bournemouth and Stoke City.

"He has conceded a few and he has to stop that," Wenger said. "But is it really a penalty or not? I think he was unlucky on both occasions. But he has to adapt."