Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta sends message to Jack Wilshere ahead of AGF Aarhus debut

Mikel Arteta has thanked Jack Wilshere for his time spent back at Arsenal and feels he has been reinvigorated ahead of his return to the pitch with Danish side AGF Aarhus.

Wilshere has not played a competitive match since leaving Bournemouth at the end of last season and had been training with former club Arsenal to maintain fitness as he searched for a new club.

That new club eventually turned out to be AGF and the 30-year-old is set to make his debut for the club on Friday in the Danish Superliga at Vejle.

Arteta is glad that Wilshere has rediscovered the passion for playing, saying that the former England star was considering hanging up his boots to embark on a coaching career before his time back with the Gunners.

‘Well first of all thank you for what he’s done all the time with us, it’s been great to have him,’ Arteta told a press conference on Wednesday.

‘I think I’m speaking on behalf of everybody at the club, it’s been absolutely a pleasure to have Jack back. To enjoy watching him play again, to have him around, the inspiration he is for all the young people.

‘Hopefully we have helped him a little bit as well, because he had some doubts about what to do – whether to start coaching or to continue playing. And I think this group of players have given him again that necessity to experience on a daily basis how magnificent it is to feel like a football player and I think he wants to experience that again.

‘We wish him the best of luck.’

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