Arsenal Mustafi ruled out until 2017

Arsenal will be without Shkodran Mustafi for the rest of the year, after he suffered a hamstring strain in their 3-1 win over Stoke City on Saturday.

Mustafi was taken off after only 25 minutes and was replaced by Hector Bellerin, who was only returning to first-team action.

The German defender has formed an impressive partnership with Laurent Koscielny since his £35 million switch from Valencia last summer.

“It’s a bad one,” Wenger said about Mustafi’s injury.

“The minimum [layoff] is 21 days. … That means he’ll have a nice Christmas.”

Mustafi was rested for the Gunners’ 4-1 win over Basel in the Champions League on Tuesday and Wenger confirmed he was carrying a minor knock ahead of that game, but was given the go-ahead by medics ahead of Saturday.

“He had nothing. I would not have played him today if he had [an injury],” Wenger said.

“Even he wanted to play in Basel, because he said, ‘No it’s nothing,’ and he was completely cleared. I checked three times, there was no problem before. I don’t know why it happened. But it looks a good hamstring strain.”