Mikel Arteta believes Jurrien Timber will be fit enough to play for Arsenal before the end of the season but the Holland international may first need to work on his match sharpness with the club’s under-21s.
After more than seven months on the sidelines recovering from ACL surgery, the 22-year-old defender has been back in first team training in recent weeks and has so far sidestepped any setbacks.
While supporters are keen to see the £34 million summer recruit from Ajax back in action, it’s clear the club aren’t going to take any unnecessary risks at this point.
“He’s doing very well,” said Arteta when asked about Timber’s rehabilitation. “He’s back training and is not far off.
“The thing is that last step, he hasn’t played any minutes. Does he need a game with the under-21s, does he need two games? We’re going to have to feel it now.
“He’s constantly training with us [and we need] to see how long that last bit is going to take him. That last part, which is tricky sometimes, it takes a while, but hopefully [he’ll be back] as quick as possible.
“I think he’s got a good chance,” said the manager when pressed on whether Timber will play before the end of the season.
“I don’t know percentage, but I think he’s got a good chance and he’s going to push it as far as he possibly can.”
While Timber will be disappointed to have missed out on the majority of the domestic season, getting back to full fitness would give him an outside chance of making Holland’s squad for the European Championships. While he’s an outsider on that front, you can never say never.
ITS GOING DOWN I’M YELLING TIMBERRRRRRR
Would be great to see him back though we have a v strong defence given what we did to City to end their 57 march home scoring run. The downside for him and us is that he hasn’t had time to integrate with the other players , so there may be a negative impact of him playing. However he would boost our attack, so let’s see what Mikel decides.
Good news but I would rather get him to complete fitness and not risk him this season or jeopardise what is already a very solid back four of kiwior-gabriel-saliba-white.
Kiwior has certainly proven his worth, especially given we’ve barely seen him play in his natural position.
Our squad is very flexible by design – and Ben white has shown a very encouraging side to his role (again, not his natural position), bombing forward whilst we have the solidity of Kiwior on the left.
I’m excited to see more of what Timber can bring to the dynamic, especially given we have Tomi and Zinny back in the mix – our defenders all seem to be fantastic players that bring different strengths to the team whilst also being great guys 😍
I am rooting for him to make a comebark soonest. No setbacks, touch wood. Or perhaps many here would accuse me of barking up the wrong tree?
Your jokes are a bit stale: you need to branch out a bit more.
I’ve just twigged whats going on here, so leaf me out of it.
Oakay.
Leaf it out lads
What’s with these jokes, are you all trunk?
Or he faces the axe?
Speaking of tree puns, it is an odd coincidence that it was the Forest game of all games in which Timber got injured.
I won’t mention names, but VAR were heard to say “If you don’t hear Timber fall, then has he really gone down?”. Honestly, they couldn’t see the wood for the trees
I wood not beleaf it until I see it
*saw* it
Tackled by Chris Wood, but this has been kept under wraps
Maybe a veneer of secrecy?
Shit jokes aside, I’d love to see he come on for the last few minutes at old Trafford to help us lift the trophy.
Assuming Timber gets back to full speed do we move Zinchenko into midfield full time? With Timber, Tomiyasu and Kiwior all available how much time will Zinchenko really get at LB? But with probably 2 out of 3 of Partey, Jorginho and Elneny leaving in the summer we’re more likely to be short in midfield I think our form since the new year has proven how much more solid we are with proper defenders at full back, but I think he could still be a very good midfielder either as partner to Rice instead of Jorginho/Partey or as the left… Read more »
Well that’s where he plays for the national team so it makes sense to utilize him as a midfielder
Great he is doing well from his recovery, but really hope they are overly careful bringing him back. We still have Tomiyasu who should be getting back into the lineup soon at left back and Zinchenko there and Timber is not going to come in for any of White, Saliba or Gabriel unless there is an injury. Hopefully he can get some match time in with the U21s to take the next step and be ready if needed for the last few matches, but would be happy not to see him until the Fall which would mean our starting backline… Read more »
Timber back in the fall. Makes sense.
As much as we all want to see him, surely the sensible thing would be to get him ready to start next season
We can’t wait for him to come back ⚽