Arsenal Breaking News: Jack Wilshere to Undergo Ankle Surgery on Monday

ESPN Soccernet reports that Jack Wilshere is set to undergo season-ending surgery to repair a stress fracture in his right ankle.

The 19-year-old Arsenal midfielder and English international had been using a protective boot in recent weeks in the hopes that his ankle might respond positively to the manner of preventative treatment.

No such luck.

Wilshere first aggravated the ankle back in June while playing for England in a European qualifier against Switzerland.

Despite having withdrawn from the European U21 Championships later that month in order to rest, the midfielder re-injured the same ankle during a July 31 Arsenal preseason match against New York Red Bulls in the Emirates Cup.

Set to undergo the procedure on Monday morning with "two of the best surgeons around," as Wilshere tweeted earlier today, there is hope that the young star may be back by Christmas.

However, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has resigned himself with the prospect that he may be without the services of one of his key players for the rest of the season.

Wenger has good reason to be skeptical of such a rosy-tinted Christmas time prognosis after seeing starting central defender Thomas Vermaelen miss the bulk of 2009-10 with his own ankle problem which also required a surgical operation.

Wilshere has also set Christmas as his personal recovery date and will be in the hands of some of the top specialists in the world, Arsenal's site reported in a statement this afternoon.

Still, for a Gunners team desperate for the faintest snippet of good news in recent weeks, and following Yossi Benayoung's midweek knock, this moribund news will be of little comfort.