Arsenal attacker Theo Walcott refused to get down over his knee injury suffered 12 months ago.

Initially the prognosis was that he would be out for six months. It has been a year and Walcott has managed just three substitute appearances, constituting a total of 51 minutes of football.

"It has gone very quickly," Walcott said. "There have been loads of things in my life that have changed completely. Things happen for a reason.

"I have had the opportunity to work on different parts of my game which I missed out on when I was younger.

"The actual development stage of it. I am really looking forward to it if I am given the opportunity.

"It is the chance to go out there and get a few more minutes. I am not going to be expecting too much from myself early on.

"It is nice to blow cobwebs away to be honest and be out there playing with your mates again. I have missed that obviously."