Wenger: Arsenal's Oxlade-Chamberlain injured by Mascherano after 'cutting him in two'

ARSENE WENGER has blamed Barcelona defender Javier Mascherano for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's potentially serious knee injury after “cutting him in two”.

12:30, Fri, Feb 26, 2016 | UPDATED: 12:43, Fri, Feb 26, 2016

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Arsenal's Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain faces a lengthy spell out after Javier Mascherano's tackle

The Arsenal and England star hobbled out of Tuesday night’s Champions League clash just a few minutes after half-time.

The winger failed to run off a knock to his knee sustained in a full-blooded challenge from the Argentinian enforcer.

And while it could be just a few weeks before Oxlade-Chamberlain rejoins Arsenal’s title challenge, Wenger’s mind will not be at rest until the experts have had a full chance to make their assessment.

“I don’t think he is a risk for Euro 2016 - he is seeing a specialist now. Let’s hope that we get good news that it’s only two or three weeks, not six or seven.”

Despite his emotive language, Wenger stopped short of insisting that Mascherano was lucky not to have been shown a card by the referee.

“No I don’t think it was a malicious tackle,” he said. “It was a fully committed tackle but it didn’t look malicious.”