IF JACK WILSHERE had left Arsenal merely to safeguard his chances of England selection, a call-up this week would have been a full vindication of the decision.
Sadly, his problems were deeper than that. The 24-year-old admits he had effectively fallen out of love with football.
Two years battling injury had taken a psychological as well as physical toll. So when former manager Sam Allardyce was busy making it clear that regular first-team football would now be a pre-requisite for all England players, it was merely the final straw.
“A lot of my decision to go on loan to Bournemouth was driven by England, but it was not just that,” Wilshere said. “It was for myself. For my head. I wanted to get back playing week-in week-out, being involved in the Premier League.
“I have missed a lot of football. I missed the fight of the Premier League, being involved in all the big games and making a difference for a team and I wanted to feel that again and almost fall back in love with the game again.
“When you are injured and injured for a while it is hard. You have to go to the training ground and watch everyone go out and play, go to the Emirates and watch them play. It was difficult at times. I needed it the change for myself.”
Wilshere first injured his ankle playing against Manchester United in November 2015 but encouragingly made a handful of substitute appearances towards the end of the season before impressing with England in the final European Championships qualifier with two goals in the 3-2 win in Slovenia.
Then, just before the start of the following campaign, a training-ground incident left him with a broken leg.
The injury last season was the hardest to take mentally because I have been through a lot,” Wilshere said. “I had come back, played for England, scored a couple of goals. Pre-season was one of the best I have felt a while.
“It was a freak tackle in training. Just a little kick. I got this injury and it took forever to heal. It was dealing with that, going to the training ground and when you do that for eight months to a year it is tough to take.
“When you are playing football it is the best job in the world. Everybody wants to do it. You wake up in the morning and you go and play football with your mates. To have that taken away and have to go the gym instead...”
Even when he returned to full physical fitness he was faced with the prospect of spending most of this season on the bench struggling to regain match sharpness at Arsenal, so Wilshere began to look elsewhere.
Despite plenty of foreign interest, Wilshere chose to immerse himself in the footballing philosophy of Eddie Howe at Bournemouth. And the difficult phone call to inform Arsene Wenger went disturbingly better than expected.
“I spoke to him on the phone, I didn’t speak to him in person,” Wilshere recalled. “He already had a feeling that I wanted to go out on loan and he had had a chance to think about it.
“He said I would play. But I wanted more than that. I wanted to be an important player for the team and play week-in, week-out from the start.”
A big fish in a smaller pond, Wilshere finally completed a full 90 minutes of action against Tottenham on October 22 for the first time in nearly two years.
“I feel my best when I am playing week-in week-out and I am an important player for the team,” Wilshere said. “I like that responsibility. If I can continue doing that I can see why I can’t do that for England as well.”
Two years battling injury had taken a psychological as well as physical toll. So when former manager Sam Allardyce was busy making it clear that regular first-team football would now be a pre-requisite for all England players, it was merely the final straw.
“A lot of my decision to go on loan to Bournemouth was driven by England, but it was not just that,” Wilshere said. “It was for myself. For my head. I wanted to get back playing week-in week-out, being involved in the Premier League.
“I have missed a lot of football. I missed the fight of the Premier League, being involved in all the big games and making a difference for a team and I wanted to feel that again and almost fall back in love with the game again.
“When you are injured and injured for a while it is hard. You have to go to the training ground and watch everyone go out and play, go to the Emirates and watch them play. It was difficult at times. I needed it the change for myself.”
Wilshere first injured his ankle playing against Manchester United in November 2015 but encouragingly made a handful of substitute appearances towards the end of the season before impressing with England in the final European Championships qualifier with two goals in the 3-2 win in Slovenia.
The injury last season was the hardest to take mentally because I have been through a lot,” Wilshere said. “I had come back, played for England, scored a couple of goals. Pre-season was one of the best I have felt a while.
“It was a freak tackle in training. Just a little kick. I got this injury and it took forever to heal. It was dealing with that, going to the training ground and when you do that for eight months to a year it is tough to take.
“When you are playing football it is the best job in the world. Everybody wants to do it. You wake up in the morning and you go and play football with your mates. To have that taken away and have to go the gym instead...”
Even when he returned to full physical fitness he was faced with the prospect of spending most of this season on the bench struggling to regain match sharpness at Arsenal, so Wilshere began to look elsewhere.
Despite plenty of foreign interest, Wilshere chose to immerse himself in the footballing philosophy of Eddie Howe at Bournemouth. And the difficult phone call to inform Arsene Wenger went disturbingly better than expected.
“I spoke to him on the phone, I didn’t speak to him in person,” Wilshere recalled. “He already had a feeling that I wanted to go out on loan and he had had a chance to think about it.
“He said I would play. But I wanted more than that. I wanted to be an important player for the team and play week-in, week-out from the start.”
A big fish in a smaller pond, Wilshere finally completed a full 90 minutes of action against Tottenham on October 22 for the first time in nearly two years.
“I feel my best when I am playing week-in week-out and I am an important player for the team,” Wilshere said. “I like that responsibility. If I can continue doing that I can see why I can’t do that for England as well.”
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