Jack Wilshere is out of Arsenal's Champions League return leg against Bayern Munich with an inflamed ankle which will sideline him for three weeks.
However the injury is not a recurrence of the injury which prevented him from playing for over a year, with his latest setback affecting his left ankle. Wilshere had the stress fracture of his right ankle repaired in 2011.
Arguably Arsenal's outstanding performer this season, the imminent international break does however limit the number of games the 21-year-old will miss.
Wilshere will sit out this weekend's Premier League trip to Swansea, as well as England's World Cup qualifiers in San Marino and Montenegro.
Wilshere's importance to Arsenal hasn't waned since his return to the first-team
The home Premier League fixture with Reading on 30 March may come too early for the midfielder, with West Brom away the likeliest return date on 6 April.
Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger said: Wenger said: "Jack Wilshere is out. He has an inflamed ankle, the other ankle to one he injured. I will be out for three weeks and will not be available for Munich, Swansea and not for England.
"Hopefully for the Premier League he will miss only one game. After is an international break. We can slowly prepare him.
"I could see in the last couple of games he had started to dig deep. He has played 30 games. For us it is not welcome but maybe for him it is not bad that he has a little breather.
'It is more about prevention. The specialist decided he needed it. He has some bone bruising. The last time it deteriorated into a stress fracture. That’s what we don’t want to happen.
"We trust people who are specialists in this area. He was out for 17 months and we had to deal with it, we must be able to deal with it for two or three games."
Wilshere has made 28 appearances for the Gunners this season having missed the entire 2011-12 campaign through injury.
Arsenal are 3-1 down from the first leg versus Bayern, with Wednesday night's second leg set to confirm an eighth successive season without a trophy.
Tomáš Rosický is likely to replace Wilshere as Arsenal bid to salvage some pride in Bavaria.