Englishman has now fully recovered from his long-running ankle problem.
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Arsenal have received a huge boost with the news that key midfield player Jack Wilshere is on course to be fit for the start of the new Premier League season, reports the Daily Mail.
The skilful England international has endured an injury-ravaged past two years, having suffered a stress fracture to his ankle playing against the New York Red Bulls in a pre-season friendly in the summer of 2011, leading to the 21-year-old then being sidelined for the next 17 months.
However, after finally making his long-awaited comeback in the previous campaign, in which the creative midfield player managed to feature in 33 matches in total for the north London club, 25 of which came in the Premier League, his manager is now hopeful that Wilshere will be fit to line up against Aston Villa at Villa Park on Aug 17.
“I think he has a good chance for Villa,” said Gunners head coach Arsene Wenger.
“‘He is not short power-wise because he’s done a lot of work on that front.
“He is short cardiovascular fitness, a little bit. That’s why we try to give him 20 minutes, after that 45 and after, hopefully, an hour and we’ll have to see how he responds.”
The Frenchman was speaking in Vietnam on the Gunners’ pre-season tour of the Far East and Australia, with the north London club overcoming a Vietnam XI in Hanoi on Wednesday in a match that saw Wilshere feature for the final 25 minutes of their comfortable 7-1 win, secured thanks to goals from Olivier Giroud, who netted a hat-trick, a Chuba Akpom brace, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ignasi Miquel.