Theo Walcott is poised to miss England's World Cup qualifier against Croatia after suffering a back injury during pre-season. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Action Images

Arsène Wenger has told Fabio Capello he will "pay the price" for his short-sightedness over Theo Walcott as he revealed that the winger was now a selection doubt with a back injury for England's matches against Slovenia and Croatia at the beginning of next month.

The Arsenal manager remains frustrated that Walcott was called up to play for Capello's England team and Stuart Pearce's Under-21s in June, thereby ensuring he would make a late return to pre-season training in a World Cup year. Pearce had been determined to select Walcott for the European Under-21 Championship in Sweden and he was fully supported in his decision by Capello.

Walcott returned to training with Arsenal on 27 July and Wenger gave him a run-out in the club's final pre-season friendly against Valencia on 8 August. Walcott played for 45 minutes in the 2-0 defeat at the Mestalla but he suffered inflammation to his lower back and has not trained fully or played since. Wenger has ruled him out of Arsenal's Premier League visit to Manchester United next Saturday and he is not confident that he will be able to play for Capello in the friendly against Slovenia on 5 September and the World Cup qualifier against Croatia on 9 September. Both matches are at Wembley.

"This is why I didn't want him to play for the Under-21s," said Wenger, who has noted that Walcott will be expected to be in prime form and fitness for the World Cup finals in South Africa at the end of the season. "I know how it works. The player comes back later than everybody else, he doesn't have a decent preparation, you are under pressure to rush him back, you play him earlier than you should, he gets an injury and you see him again in October. He has no decent preparation for the season and, in the end, England will pay the price as well.

"I am not angry because I knew at the start what could happen. But there is frustration because I can't see the logic in that whole process. In the end, England and Arsenal have a handicap.

"When a guy comes back on 27 July and you start the season on 15 August, he cannot be fit because ideal preparation is four to six weeks. Maybe I should not have played him in Valencia but I thought: 'We play a Champions League qualifier [against Celtic on 18 August]'. You cannot give them any less than four weeks of holiday and in England, once you start, you never stop. With no winter break, you cannot catch it back."

Walcott started England's World Cup qualifiers in early June against Kazakhstan and Andorra before he flew to Sweden to join up with the Under-21s. He was controversially dropped by Pearce for the second group game against Spain but he played some part in all five of the team's fixtures, culminating in the 4-0 defeat by Germany in the final on 29 June.

Wenger was asked whether Pearce's decision to take Walcott to the tournament had been a selfish one. "It was results-orientated, of course," he said. "Once a player is already playing for the national team, what is the reason to take him with the Under-21s, whose intention is to promote players to the full team? That's what I couldn't understand. And then they put him on the bench."

Wenger said Walcott had not told him he had suffered the injury and the first he knew about it was when England's doctors informed him. Walcott had joined up with Capello's squad on 10 August to prepare for the friendly against Holland.

"They [the England medics] told me Theo has a back problem but they will take him [to Amsterdam]," Wenger said. "They said, 'It will be clear in one or two days'. It isn't. It's not the end of the world but it's a bit linked with the whole package."

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About this article

This article appeared on p7 of the Sport section of the Guardian
on Friday 21 August 2009.
It was published on
the Guardian website
at 19.41 EDT on Friday 21 August 2009.
It was last modified at 10.21 EDT on Wednesday 11 June 2014.
It was first published at 19.10 EDT on Friday 21 August 2009.