Arsene Wenger has revealed Theo Walcott is still suffering from the sickness bug which has ripped through the Arsenal camp, reports John Cross in Beijing.
Olivier Giroud, Sead Kolasanic and Per Mertesacker were struck down with illness in the week while Walcott and Aaron Ramsey were feeling the effects.
It has made it a difficult end to Arsenal’s pre-season trip to China because of sweltering heat and humidity while the pitch in the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing looks in poor condition.
Gunners boss Wenger, whose side face Chelsea tomorrow, said: “Theo Walcott might not play. We had 21 fit today. Theo is not ready, but it’s nothing major.
“It’s a friendly against Chelsea and that means it is not really a friendly. There’s always some pride at stake and London desire. It was an interesting game in the FA Cup final.
“We play Chelsea in Community Shield and early in the season again. We know each other very well and it’s difficult to know how prepared is Chelsea. It was good against Bayern and it is another test for us.”
Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny also missed the game with Bayern Munich earlier in the week because of a back problem.
Koscielny says he is fit now and also paid a warm tribute to Wenger when asked about his manager by the Chinese media.
Koscielny said: “All the players who have been trained by Mr Wenger have a lot of respect for him. For me he is an important person. He brought me from playing in France and gave me the chance to play for big club like Arsenal and play in the Champions League.
“I think to play for France I needed to play for a big club like Arsenal and play in the Champions League. Today I have a big part in Arsenal and a lot of things with the boss and the club.
“My family are happy at Arsenal. I have my children. Arsene Wenger is a big monument for me and the other players.
“My back is better. I had a little pain Tuesday morning so I had treatment. Today I trained. I’m OK, not 100 per cent but ok for the game. For the team I think last season we finished well and we worked well in Australia and China.
“We worked well physically. We have game to show what we were doing in our sessions. We are focused on the games and we want to win because that give you confidence to play with freedom. We are focused on our new season. We need to play and win our first game.”