Last night rumours surfaced that Mikel Arteta had suffered an injury setback and was likely to be out for several more weeks.
Unfortunately, the news from Arsenal is actually much more serious. The club captain has undergone surgery to his left ankle to remove a bony spur and will now be out of action for another three months. Anything with sp*r in it is bad news…
Given we’re in mid-January, he’s looking at a mid-April comeback at the earliest. But when you add on the need to find match fitness it’s fair to say he may not feature until May, if at all.
Speaking about the operation, Arsene Wenger revealed: “Mikel has had surgery which went well. I have just seen him, he is back with us at the training ground.
“He had a limited mobility in his ankle and some persistent inflammation that had an impact on his calf. That meant we had to make the decision to have surgery and it’s a proper solution which gives him the best chance to recover.”
The 32-year-old has only featured 12 times so far this season having suffered two previous injuries before the calf problem that forced him off the pitch in his last game against Borussia Dortmund in November.
Arseblog News wishes our lego-headed Spaniard all the best with his recovery. You’ll always be beautiful in our eyes.
Sigh
Get well soon skipper!
Bad for us and Mikel.
Good that our Coq is up (and running).
I miss his Lego hair every game!
If everything goes to plan in his recovery, he should be back just in time for the Champions League final! Get well soon Mikel, I fuckin’ love you, man.
You don’t need to be fully fit to watch the final from home!
I jest, I jest
That’s the spirit!
Hopefully back for 16 May when we miraculously win the league at Old Trafford, then off to the Champions League final.
Love you all my fellow Gooners :’)
Love all the positivity around here for a change. So to prove all the doubters wrong, here is a realistic scenario listed in order:
Round 16: beat Monaco
Quarterfinal: beat the winner of Porto/Basel
Semifinal: beat Real Madrid on penalties (Ramos and Bale suspended, Ronaldo injured)
Final: Voilah! Champions League final in Berlin, against Chelsea!
You forgot about destroying Chelsea in FA Cup final to complete the treble
There’s always the chance we could draw Chel$ki in the FA Cup semi-final and the CL quarter-final. In that case, our schedule for the last half of April would be:
Wed Apr 15 CLQF1 – Chel$ki 0-3 ARSENAL
Sat Apr 18 FACSF – ARSENAL 4-0 Chel$ki
Tue Apr 21 CLQF2 – ARSENAL 5-0 Chel$ki
Sat Apr 25 PL – ARSENAL 6-0 Chel$ki
Those damn spurs!
Arteta is a true Gunner now – the Spurs are really getting under his skin.
get well soon
Schneiderlin
Coquelin/ Flamini/ Chambers could cover until the summer, but it must have come to the point where the manager has to properly address this position. We always seem to be just one or two players away, next year it might be the goalkeeper.
Wait, haven’t you heard? Gundogan and Hummels for £63mn. Duh.
Oh Yuh! I have a feeling Arsene doesn’t value positionally defensive assets anywhere nearly as highly as most. Can’t see him ever paying Mesut/ Sanchez money for a Gundogan type. Does have logic to it, but it’s going to disappoint a lot of people.
There is a little bit of progress at least, we were 3 players short last season (numerically, at least Poldi maybe wasn’t producing as much as he should and Vermaelen was only technically part of the squad). Now we’re only a CB and a replacement for Arteta away from having a satisfactory squad, and then it would just be our strange psychological issue holding us back. Yay.
Terrible news. Much underrated critical component to the spine of the side.
Time was being Arsenal skipper put a “for sale” sign round your neck. With TV5 and Mikel it seems that the curse has moved away from the agents and into the treatment room… Bah!
Good luck, MA8 and see you slide-ruling passes out to Alexis at some point soon, we hope
Schlecht!
Is Arteta in his last year of his contract? Have I made that up or is there any truth to that? Any Arsenal injury is bad news and I wish him the best of luck in his recovery
Not that it’s entirely relevant, but those of you who are familiar with rugby, Brian O’Driscoll suffered a similar injury for bone spurs and had surgery to rectify it (although his was spinal, not ankle related, and was caused from continual impact to his shoulders/neck). He described it as a bit like losing a shock absorbe in impacts. Persistent strikes get worse and worse (ever increasing pain and nerve damage), resulting in bone on bone contact which causes a mutated growth of the bone – so it starts to grow at weird angles and in unusual shapes. In any respect,… Read more »
Well said.
Maybe you should say something about the manager who shortened his career by playing him out of position and then converting him permanently which then led to him taking on all the abuse by bigger stronger and faster players every minute of the match…the number of times i see him struggle on the back foot or being out muscled makes me pity him sometimes
We should buy a few clubs just so that we can loan some players in when we need them. Fuck you injury gods!
Interesting point Rohith, or perhaps use the Barca model of having a B team that plays in a lower division would work better (I think the FA my not be in favour of big clubs buying little ones, but they would be daft, I know, I know, not to consider the B team scenario here), it would also take away the necessity of loans for developing players, and as we know, Wenger is favour.
We should just stop nominating captains.
Feel gutted for Arteta, a true professional and although he is often much criticized for what he is not he brought a level of professionalism and calmness to the lineup as we all as great character and attitude. One of my favorite players mainly because of how he goes about his business. The one positive of his long-term absence is that it may force Wenger into making a move now for long wanted DM stud the fans have been clamoring for. Even though we can get by with Flamini and Coquelin there for now, we really need to stabilize this… Read more »
Both Debuchy and Arteta out until mid-April? Double shit.
Another player whose season is now over.
Big game coming up. 1:Playing a big team 2:Away Funny thing is I think we are closer now to aquitting ourselves well in this type of match. Anyway heres the lineup. The goalkeeper and back four pick themselves ( although personally I have no issue with Szcz coming back) I have always approved of smoking goalkeepers!! Now for the bit I dont want to see changed……..(with no further fuckin injuries of course) Coq Rambo Ox Santi Sanchez Giroud Yeah,Yeah, I know Ozil is available, but its not time yet and its not the match ……….. Please Arsene……….Trust me , I’m… Read more »
Rambo is just coming back from injury so I’m not sure. Ozil seems to be closer to action than he is.
I hope the injuries don’t come back to bite us. As we’re in January, I hope for new recruits (even on loan), to cover the players we’ve lost (as well as the defensive cover we already needed). I doubt it though.
I just hope our Coq can remain firm for the rest of the season.
OH geesus.