LONDON -- Danny Welbeck will have to overcome a big mental hurdle in order to be the same player after he recovers from his latest long-term injury, Arsene Wenger said.
Welbeck needed surgery on his right knee this week and was ruled out for up to nine months. The injury occurred just three months after Welbeck returned from an equally-long layoff following an operation on his other knee.
While doctors expect the England forward to make a full recovery physically, Wenger said it may take even longer before Welbeck recovers mentally from another setback.
"Will it cause some psychological damage in his commitment? I don't know. It certainly will take him some time to get back to feeling free," Wenger said. "He's a player who is explosive and committed. He'll certainly need to get over a psychological hurdle when he comes back. I don't think that physically he will suffer."
Wenger has seen several of his players suffer through long rehabilitation processes after serious injuries, including midfielders Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere. Ramsey was initially hesitant to go into challenges after breaking his leg against Stoke in 2010, while Wilshere recently insisted he won't change his playing style after recovering from seven months out with a fractured ankle. And Wenger said Abou Diaby, the French midfielder who was chronically injured during his time at Arsenal, never showed signs of holding back when returning to full training.
"You have different types of players. I had the experience with Diaby, he would always come back after a year out and in the first training session you had to tell him 'be cautious.' And with some others, there's longer-term damage [mentally]. Ramsey, it took him a while, yes. Most of the time, what you avoid is the specific position in which you have been injured. Players they go in completely normally committed, but when they get into that position, it's like an alert in the brain that says 'don't do that.'"
Wenger also knows that the rehabilitation process can also be more draining psychologically instead of physically.
"The first period is the worst one. In Danny's case I believe it will be 12 weeks on crutches," Wenger said. "Once the player can work again and feels it's going upwards then you have done the job, but the first period is very depressing."
The key to keeping spirits up, Wenger said, is to get the injured player away from his healthy teammates.
"There's nothing worse than to see everybody else jumping around and you can't move," Wenger said. "A training centre like this is not a hospital. They take care of people who are in good shape. The best is for them to be with people who are in a similar situation."