Arsène Wenger maintains Arsenal and England must not go "crazy" over Jack Wilshere's return to action as the midfielder steps up his recovery after more than a year out injured.
Wilshere played his first match for 14 months in the Under-21 fixture at West Bromwich Albion on Monday afternoon, having been sidelined by an ankle problem and then knee surgery. The 20-year-old is set for another run-out next week against Reading, but Wenger continues to stress it must be a cautious rehabilitation.
"Jack needs a few games, progressive buildup to get his body used again to competition, to shocks, to fights, but he is doing extremely well, the situation looks very good," Wenger said. "We have to be cautious, not crazy, because of his talent you are always pushed in a situation where you would like to rush him back, and we have to resist that.
"The next match should be next week and he is working very hard. The body is like that, when you have been out of competition for 14 months it takes a long time to find your sharpness back. You cannot rush it."
Wenger hopes a steady fitness programme will see the long-term benefits for both club and country. "There are three things that are important for every player: the health of the player, the interests of the club and the interests of the national team," he said.
"You have to try to combine the three but the most important thing of course is the health of the player. [England manager] Roy Hodgson is long enough in the job to know that a player who has been out for 14 months, you have to give him time to play again. When the time comes up, he will play for England again of course."
Hodgson called up the Arsenal trio of Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott for the World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Poland. The right-back Carl Jenkinson was also close to Hodgson's thoughts, with the club now providing a healthy chunk of the England senior squad.
"Yes [it is a change] because I faced many times of course some questions about that," Wenger said. "I always said that the ideal mixture was to have a basic young squad where 60% comes from this country and 40% maybe from abroad. We get slowly there and we have good young talent from England."
Arsenal will look to get their Premier League campaign back on track at West Ham United on Saturday following last weekend's defeat by Chelsea. They head to Upton Park without their first-choice goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and midfielder Abou Diaby, but are hopeful Per Mertesacker can shake off a virus to line up in central defence – which would be a boost ahead of facing Andy Carroll, who has recovered from a hamstring injury.
Wenger said of the challenge provided by West Ham: "They have a good balance, they are efficient, they are a good mixture I must say between direct play and playing on the ground.
"Technically they are quite sound in midfield, they have Carroll and [Carlton] Cole up front who can go for high balls. We know we will have a big challenge there, we know we will only get away with the points if we perform at our best."