It was just announced on Sky Sports News that Theo Walcott has withdrawn from the England squad to face both San Marino and the potentially crucial match against Montenegro in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

Seemingly, it is a groin injury that has felled Walcott who will be seriously disappointed to be missing out on such important games for his country after he has managed to make not only a squad place his own under Roy Hodgson but also a place in the England starting eleven. Reportedly, Walcott picked up the groin strain in training with the national team on Thursday.

Walcott has delivered a bunch of impressive performances in his most recent games for England and was particularly in-form in the recent friendly against Brazil at Wembley where he made the Brazilian left back’s night a misery and almost scored. Roy Hodgson will probably look to Tottenham’s Aaron Lennon as a replacement on the right hand side.

The good news for both Theo Walcott and Arsenal is that the early reports suggest that the groin strain is not too serious and although he will definitely miss the two World Cup qualifiers for England, he might not miss many more games and in fact there is an outside chance he could be available for Arsenal’s next match – a Premier League encounter against Reading at the Emirates on Saturday, March 30th. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!