Wenger warns England: Play Wilshere at your peril

Arsene Wenger has warned that over-playing Jack Wilshere is a car-crash waiting to happen.

And the Arsenal boss said England risk ruining their chances of winning Euro 2012 by using his midfielder in the under-21 team this summer.

Before tonight's visit of Blackburn to the Emirates Stadium, the Frenchman claimed starting the talented teenager in both internationals last week "defied common-sense"

But now Wenger is more concerned over the FA's and Wilshere's desire to play up to another five matches in June in the European under-21 Championships in Denmark.

If England reach the final, the 19-year-old could end up playing 59 matches in his breakthrough season.

The Gunners manager has already suffered this scenario when Theo Walcott played in the 2009 under-21 Championships - and then missed out on the World Cup squad after an injury-dogged season.

And the world-weary Wenger insisted a repeat performance is not in the interests of player, club nor country.

"I've met players at World Cups who have played more than 60 games in a season and before the World Cup started and they said to me: Boss, I am dead'," he explained.

"You prepare for a European Championship a year before. You do not prepare in May or in June before the competition. You prepare it a year before.

"I think they have to look as well how many players will play. I do not want to go into these battles any more. I did it with France.

"When they were World and European Champions, they went to Australia, they went to Chile and they went out in the first round of the 2002 World Cup without scoring a goal.

"I have enough experience - experience helps you only to anticipate problems. It doesn't make you more intelligent. You know this car will hit the wall at some stage and you see it a little bit earlier than somebody who has less experience. I think in the world, nobody has brought more young players out than I have and I have a good experience of what kind of stages they go through."

Wenger suggested he will react to Wilshere playing in June by giving him time off at the start of next season.

"England have to decide what to do," he continued. "We will adapt. We will give the needed rest to Wilshere if he plays the tournament. That's all I can say. At the end of the day, what is important is that England has a good player, Arsenal has a good player and the player has the needed rest to produce good performances."

Ignoring the value of winning a major international tournament - like Germany two years ago - Wenger also claimed using full internationals in under-21 tournaments was just for "ego".

He explained: "The youth system is made to promote the players for the top team and once they are in the top team I don't see a basic need to go back.

"Unless you say we want to go for national pride and ego, so we just play our best players in this tournament, then it is defendable."

But Wenger could find no defence for starting Wilshere against Wales and Ghana - the only outfield player to do so along with Glenn Johnson and Ashley Young.

"A lot happened last week that defied commonsense but I do not want to talk about that," he said.

The international break was otherwise good news for the Arsenal manager with Robin Van Persie recovering from a kick on his knee - and his team given time to recover from failure in three cup competitions.

"We had a difficult March on all fronts so now its a new start for us," Wenger reasoned.

"Maybe the international break has worked in our favour. We have recovered some players. We were touched mentally. We played with desire but did not have free spirit. For us to play well, it is important to have a free spirit. So to recover a bit mentally was important."

Cesc Fabregas, Abou Diaby, Alex Song and Theo Walcott all return while Johan Djourou, whose season Wenger had written off, could be back in a fortnight.

"His shoulder injury did not need reconstruction and we are hopeful he will be back in training on Monday," Wenger revealed.

And despite his calamitous display in their last match at West Brom, Manuel Almunia will continue in goal ahead of Jens Lehmann as Arsenal seek to extend their unbeaten 12-match run in the Premier League.

"He made a mistake but he will play tomorrow," the manager said yesterday.

"Lehmann has been brought in because we needed a goalkeeper. We have (Lukasz) Fabianski out, (Wojciech) Szczesny out and we have just Almunia

"Of course Lehmann can help the players because he speaks his mind, as you know.

"He can help the players to get over the line and he can give experience and bring calm and bring as well his quality in training and competition for Almunia."