Walcott set for shoulder surgery

Arsenal winger Theo Walcott will have surgery after dislocating his shoulder and miss the next seven-to-eight weeks, BBC Sport understands.

Walcott, who has a hereditary shoulder problem, suffered the injury in training with the England squad ahead of Wednesday's friendly with Germany.

The 19-year-old saw a specialist after flying home and will have an operation within the next couple of days.

Walcott has suffered from a series of shoulder injuries in his career.

He had his left shoulder pinned in 2007 and had to be stretchered off during Arsenal's recent game with Stoke after he fell on it and suffered spasms as a result.

The operation will be carried out by the same surgeon who operated on Walcott in 2007.

Walcott has been a regular for the Gunners this season and, having seen his team collect just four points from their last four league games, Wenger must do without one of his most potent attacking players.

Last season the Derby midfielder Stephen Pearson was ruled out for a month after suffering the same injury.

But Walcott is not expected to return until 2009 - ruling him out of the remainder of Arsenal's Champions League group campaign as well as at least seven Premier League games.

"During Tuesday's training session Theo Walcott dislocated his right shoulder after falling on the pitch," said an FA statement.

"Arsenal's medical staff were advised of the injury soon after the incident."

Speaking on Tuesday prior to learning of Walcott's injury, Wenger expressed his displeasure at the timing of the international break.

"It is particularly not welcome at the moment because it is at a period where you want your players to recover a little bit," he told the Arsenal website.

"I don't see what you gain from this friendly because there is no game. You can explain a friendly to prepare for an official match but after this there is no international game for four months."

Three months out we lost another player Luck is playing Hard for Arsenal This season