Unai Emery has confirmed that Laurent Koscielny is moving ever closer to a first team comeback as he recovers from an injury which has kept him out of action for over 6 months at this stage.
The skipper ruptured his Achilles tendon against Atletico Madrid last May, and has been undergoing intensive rehab in the last few months. He is back in full training with the squad, but obviously needs some game time to get his match fitness up.
As such, he looks likely to make his return with a run-out for the U23s before he’s considered for more competitive action.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash with Bournemouth, the Spaniard said, “Laurent Koscielny is close with us, which is good news.
“He started to train with us every day one month ago. The process with him is this international break he finishes training and now it is to start playing minute by minute.
“First, the idea is to play with U23s, but also I am looking at him and with his good performances and good feelings, he is close.
“Maybe Monday he can play with U23s.”
Koscielny’s return would be timely as Arsenal will play 11 times between November 25th and December 29th, a hectic schedule which will require as many fit and healthy players as possible.
However, there was some bad news earlier when it was reported that Nacho Monreal would spend another couple of weeks on the sidelines due to a hamstring strain.
Stephan Lichtsteiner is also out of this weekend’s game, while young centre-half Dinos Mavropanos appears to be no closer to a return to fitness as he battles an ongoing groin problem.
Good for Kos, great for the U23s, I’m sure they will learn from him.
Fantastic News! People wrote him off way too early. He just turned 33. Hardly a retirement age for central defenders. And the fact that he hasn’t performed as well as we’re used to in the last 1-2 seasons was mostly down to his ongoing achilles problems, if you ask me. There’s a good chance that the injury, respectively the surgery, was a blessing in disguise and that he will get back to his best now where these problems are sorted out.
Welcome back, captain!
Personally, I think that’s wishful thinking.
Wishful thinking it may be but if you don’t mind I’m going to continue to think wishfully until evidence gets in the way.
Definitely still got some years in him at top level. Is he not still 32 until he turns 33 though? ?
My strong impression the last couple of seasons, though I don’t have the statistics to bear it out, is that Koscielny played really well, a top Premier League defender, whenever he had enough rest. A second match within a week saw an obvious decline in quality. I assumed–and I think I was right–that this was primarily due to his Achilles problem, not to advancing age. I hope this means he can, at least, do the same thing for another couple of seasons or, even, that he can play at a high level more often after the surgery.
Well said Mr. George.
Who we have as a LB in U23s ?
We have recently bought Joel lopez who plays for U18s,Thompson is also a decent prospect. U23s don’t have anyone noteworthy tho(Tolaji maybe but don’t think he can do a job in the PL).
Here’s hoping that he will come back to some resemblance of his previous form.