IT HAS been a frustrating season for Ashley Cole. The left back has been able to make little contribution to Arsenal’s run in the Champions League or England’s closing matches in qualifying for the World Cup finals. Injuries have restricted him to only 56 minutes of first-team football in the past six months.

Yet if staying fresh and peaking at the right time is what the game is all about, Cole could have a head start over his team-mates — for club and country — as the business end of the season approaches.

The portents are good. Cole played a full part in the Arsenal reserve team’s 3-1 win against West Ham United at Upton Park on Thursday, showing no signs of the ankle trouble that has kept him sidelined for eight weeks, and is included in the squad for the Barclays Premiership match away to Sunderland on Monday.

“He came through the game well,” Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, said yesterday. “He had no problems today and he will be available for Monday. I do not think there will be a lot of change at the back against Sunderland, but maybe Ashley can come in. I do not know yet.”

Before suffering an ankle injury, a stress fracture of the foot had kept Cole out since early October. He will have a maximum of three league matches and the Champions League final, in which Arsenal play Barcelona in Paris on May 17, to prove his fitness for inclusion in the England squad for the World Cup finals.

It is much the same with Sol Campbell, Cole’s Arsenal and England team-mate, whose campaign has also been frequently interrupted by injury. Wenger said: “Sol is well, too.”

Cole and Campbell will continue their rehabilitation at the Stadium of Light against the bottom team in the Premiership. Wenger, though, is likely to be without Alexander Hleb, Gilberto Silva, Mathieu Flamini and Philippe Senderos because of injury. José Antonio Reyes, the forward, is recovering from having a wisdom tooth extracted.

Wearside could have been the perfect stage on which to introduce Theo Walcott, the 17-year-old signed from Southampton in January. However, he suffered a knee injury against West Ham reserves and may have to wait his turn until next season. “He had to come off after ten minutes,” Wenger said. “But I think it will be a question of days rather than weeks.”