Van Persie missed five months of last season with an ankle injury

Arsenal striker Robin van Persie will be sidelined with an ankle injury until at least mid-October.

The Dutchman, 27, suffered the injury during Arsenal's 2-1 win over Blackburn in the Premier League on 28 August.

The Netherlands Football Association had forecast he would be out for "at least a few weeks", however, the problem is worse than first feared.

Van Persie missed five months last season after damaging ankle ligaments while on international duty.

His latest injury rules him out of Arsenal's first two Champions League group stage matches, at home to Braga on 15 September and away to Partizan Belgrade 13 days later.

It seems likely he will miss a minimum of five Premier League matches, including the north London derby at Tottenham on 21 September and away to leaders Chelsea on 3 October.

The Dutch, meanwhile, will have to do without him for their Euro 2012 qualifiers against Moldova and Sweden next month, with Hamburg's Ruud van Nistelrooy likely to continue to fill the striking breach in the squad.

606: DEBATE It's getting beyond a joke now, either we sign another top quality striker or we sell him. He only plays around 20 games a season and we can't have that if we want to win the league A

Van Persie's injury resulted in former Manchester United and Real Madrid forward Van Nistelrooy called up by the Netherlands for the first time in two years, as the 34-year-old came off the bench to score once in his country's opening Group E qualifier on Friday - a 5-0 win over San Marino.

After missing much of last season through injury, Van Persie was an ever-present as the Netherlands reached the World Cup final this summer, but he has had a frustrating start to the current domestic campaign.

Lacking full match fitness, he made only brief appearances in Arsenal's opening fixtures against Liverpool and Blackpool before his first start of the campaign was curtailed by injury after 35 minutes on Saturday.

Marouane Chamakh, who led the line after replacing Van Persie on Saturday, is likely to continue to play as Arsenal's sole forward with Denmark international Nicklas Bendtner also unavailable because of a groin injury.

There was better news for Gunners manager Arsene Wenger, though, on midfielder Samir Nasri.

The Frenchman injured his knee in the 1-1 league draw at Liverpool on 15 August. However, according to a statement on Arsenal's website, Nasri "will return to training in the next few days", after initially being expected to be ruled out for a month.

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