Emile Smith Rowe says he’s looking forward to playing for England under-21s this summer after admitting last season was the “hardest” of his career.
The midfielder, 22, barely featured in the Premier League last season after opting to have surgery in September on a long-standing groin injury.
Having used the World Cup hiatus to rehabilitate, the Hale End graduate was hoping to hit the ground running in January but there were fitness setbacks along the way and he couldn’t force his way into a starting lineup featuring in-form teammates in his preferred positions.
Despite his struggles, Arsenal have made it clear that Smith Rowe is not for sale and the player is now focused on getting match sharp at at the Under-21 European Championships in Georgia and Romania before starting afresh at Emirates Stadium in August.
“Arsenal are my club and I’m not going to give up until [Arteta] says he doesn’t want me,” Smith Rowe told The Times.
“But that’s not the case. He wants me as part of the team and I want to fight for my place and get back in the team.”
He added: “I just want to be on the pitch. This was the hardest season of my career.
“It was tough, but we were in a title race and I understand the manager isn’t going to change the team if we’re winning every game,” he says.
“I just tried to stay positive and train as well as I could. The other players and Mikel [Arteta] were great with me, kept me feeling connected. But it was tough, a long season. I won’t lie.”
Smith Rowe also revealed that his groin problem had been so bad that he was having injections every week to help him through games the season before last.
“I had this injury in my groin since, maybe, I was 19 years old. I’d just been managing it season after season, getting injections and taking tablets to not feel it.
“Last season [the 2021-22 campaign] I had an injection which would make me not feel my groin at all, even when kicking the ball. That was the only thing helping me get through games.
“But at the start of this season I was still feeling it and felt I couldn’t just keep having injections for the rest of my career. I got to Manchester United away and took a shot, off balance, but tried to use all my power. I knew as soon as I done it, I’d torn something.”
Here’s hoping Emile can get back to his best. On his day, he’s an incredible weapon to have at our disposal.
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Click here to read Jonathan Northcroft’s full interview with Emile.
In THAT victory against chelsea, where he was deployed as 10, potentially saved Arteta’s managerial.
Certainly saved all us fans too…
Saved us watching much more of William.
Saliba was on loan.
He obviously meant Willian, one of our usual Chelsea retirees now at Fulham.
William Pitt the Younger had been dead for over 200 years.
And don’t even get me started on William Pitt the Elder.
Boggles the mind.
Great to hear this… Wishing Emile good luck with U21’s, then for him to come back fit and fresh and ready for the biggest season of his career so far.
These would be the best news of the summer for me, and that he plays regularly next season, in xhaka role.
That No.8 role could be his and his alone next season – not least because we’ll probably have nobody else on the books, at the level required, capable of being deployed there.
Could be an entirely different setup next season.
I feel Arteta is cooking something 😁
Can’t wait to see you back in the Team! And hearing THAT song again from the fans!
“Here we go-o……..”
That’s the first time I have understood a bit more about how serious his hip issue was.
Superb player, and I wish him luck!
Groin issue… but hope he plays more next season ofc! One of our own
His comments about the groin injection and not feeling anything were interesting. My wife also tells me she doesn’t feel anything when I do this.
Good lad.
He played well enough, often enough, to make me certain he was good enough to start for a Champions League team (or, it turns out, a title-contending team)–not a wonderful game or two where he might have been playing above his talent but enough to see the base-line quality. Add to that the consistent stories that he was always thought the most talented of our kids (better than Saka!).
So, what you have is potentially a great player, still very young and now finally physically fit. That’s worth another year or two of patience.
Wow sometimes we don’t know what these guys are dealing with. Constant injections wow. Probably fear that after surgery not being the same. Finally dealing with the issue can only be good for him. You got this ESR.
I think I speak for most Arsenal fans in saying we are rooting for you Emile.
For all arsenal fans, otherwise they better not bother
Only thing that makes sense so far is keeping ESR. Why the FK are we paying 100 million for over priced over hyped west ham player, getting rid of Xhaka when he just had his best season at Arsenal, getting rid of Partey who is still solid in MDF, going for another Chelsea player who had a poor season, and going after a Southampton player that just finished 20th? Hope all these BS rumors are false.
Not worried about ESR at all. Think he was taken to the Arteta first team academy all last season. Martinelli went through the same thing a few years back when there was a lot misguided talk about Arteta not rating him. I will not be surprised if ESR comes back better than ever and really makes his mark in the league next season.
LANS!
The Smith !! Needs to be given a chance , I’d have him over Fabio Viera all day .
2021/22 ESR would be like a new signing! Hoping for the best!
Arsenals players player for 2024 will be ESR.