Jack Wilshere's long-awaited return to football ends in dramatic defeat

Jack Wilshere's return to football did not go exactly as planned after the ex-Arsenal man spent the majority of the game on the bench before being introduced with less than 20 minutes to play.

To make matters worse, the former England international came on for new outfit AGF Aarhus while the scores were level at 2-2, only for his side to concede deep into the huge amount of second-half stoppage time.

Wilshere has been without a club since his release from Championship side Bournemouth at the end of last season but had recently returned to Arsenal to train in a bid to keep his fitness levels up.

He had minimal impact on the game, but did display his technical prowess with a number of impressive deft touches and weighted passes.

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Wilshere immediately took up the kind of spaces he did so often for Arsenal, picking the ball up deep before trying to work his way up the pitch with a series of quick one-twos.

He was sent back to the dressing room just before the second-half along with every other player after a broken floodlight delayed the action by 16 minutes according to the referee.

Once the switch had been confirmed earlier this month, Wilshere said: "Since I started training with Arsenal, I have never hidden the fact that it was to be ready for 2022 and for a new club.

"Now the right club is here, and it will be an exciting new challenge for me. I am in a place in my career where I need to get started again after a difficult period and that opportunity has AGF offered me.

"For that I am very grateful, and I will do everything I can to live up to the expectations.

"I am very much looking forward to contributing to the team. I'm physically in really good shape and I feel fit, so now for me it's about getting into the squad and see if I can earn some playing time for the club and contribute to get some wins."

Should things not work out in Denmark, Wilshere will be heartened by the recent comments of Gunners boss and former teammate Mikel Arteta.

"First of all, thank you for what he's done with us, it's been great to have him with us," Arteta told reporters before Arsenal's contest with Wolves on Thursday.

"It's been absolutely a pleasure to have Jack back and to watch him playing and having him around the younger players.

"Hopefully we can help him and we have helped him a little bit already, because he had some doubts over what to do - whether to keep playing or start coaching.

"I think this group of players have given him that necessity to experience on a daily basis how magnificent it is to feel like a football player."