Arsene Wenger has BANNED handshakes at Arsenal to try to stop a virus spreading through the club - so the players are touching elbows instead.

Wenger is going to great lengths to control a sickness that has already affected Per Mertesacker, Thomas Vermaelen, Francis Coquelin and Theo Walcott, plus several members of staff.

To promote team-building, Arsenal manager Wenger has a strict rule that all his players must shake hands with each other before every session at their London Colney training base.

But now signs have been put up ordering players not to shake hands with staff members or visitors.

The dressing rooms are also being cleaned with special alcoholic wash up to three times a day.

The players have found a novel way around the handshake ban - touching elbows before training sessions.

Team members have been urged to wash their hands and stay away at the first sign of illness or a sore throat.

However, Arsenal will perform the ritual handshake with opponents West Ham before Saturday tea-time's televised Premier League game.

Wenger said: “We have improved the level of hygiene in the dressing room. We clean everything.

"It is funny, but shaking hands is one of the biggest thing to spread virus.”