Starlet is currently suffering from an ankle injury.
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Premier League leaders Arsenal are set to finally complete their long-awaited capture of highly rated Schalke 04 midfielder Julian Draxler within the next 48 hours, although the north London club plan on immediately loaning the youngster back to the Bundesliga outfit for the rest of the season.
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The Gunners have been keeping close tabs on the Germany international for some time now, with head coach Arsene Wenger well known to be a huge fan of Draxler’s.
However, with arch rivals Manchester United and Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich both known to also be interested in landing Draxler in the current January transfer window, the Frenchman has been forced to step up his chase of the 20-year-old.
And in order to convince Schalke to sell Arsenal their star man, Wenger is now prepared to both loan the midfielder back to the German side for the remainder of this campaign in order to assist their push for a place in next season’s Uefa Champions League.
And this latest development appears to tipped the balance in the north Londoners’ favour, despite the fact that the player is currently out injured after tearing a tendon in his ankle last month that is likely to keep the 20-year-old out of action until at least March at the earliest.
But nonetheless, the prospect of Schalke being able to still utilise their starlet for the final two months of the campaign as they go in search of Champions League football again next season and all the riches that Europe’s premier club competition has on offer has proved too hard to resist for the German outfit.
Meanwhile, from Arsenal’s point of view, this new course of action was decided upon at a top-level transfer meeting that was held over the weekend in the capital between majority shareholder Stan Kroenke, chief executive Ivan Gazidis and manager Wenger, with the club’s American owner currently over in London to finalise the Frenchman’s new two-year contract.
And during the face-to-face discussions between the trio it was decided that what with Draxler being sidelined now until March and also unavailable to Arsenal in this season’s Champions League, then the best course of action was to seal a deal for the star now by loaning him back to Schalke until the summer.
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