Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud out for six weeks, January move to Everton in jeopardy

London, Dec 25: Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud's hopes of securing a transfer in January window could be in jeopardy after reports have emerged that the French striker could be sidelined until February after tearing his hamstring against West Ham.

The French forward has been limited to a starting role this season after the arrival of former Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette as manager Arsene Wenger has mostly selected the senior forward in the Europa League this season.

The forward has played only 373 minutes of Premier League football so far this season, less than five full matches with most of the appearances coming from the bench.

And with World Cup on the door, the forward was advised by the French national team assistant coach to move from London to a top side either on loan temporarily or on a permanent basis to have more game time if he is to keep his place in France's squad for the 2018 World Cup.

The 31-year-old currently faces solid competition for a place in France's 23-man squad for Russia after the emergence of top attackers like Lacazette, Antoine Griezmann, Anthony Martial, Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Nabil Fekir among others.

In the summer, Giroud was linked with a move to Everton, however, he rejected the move then but recently it appeared that the Toffees were still trying to get a deal done for Giroud in January and the player was also keen to join the Premier League rival for a near about £20 million transfer.

But now it appears that a January move could be in tatters after French sports paper L'Equipe reported that Giroud will miss the next six weeks because of injury. He will be out of ten games for the Gunners over the busy Christmas period but most importantly if he could not able to recover by January, any clubs will unlikely take a risk to sign an injured player.

Giroud has seven goals in all competitions this season but has only made one start and fourteen Premier League appearances from the bench while has started six games in the Europa League and another three in the Carabao Cup.