Mikel Arteta has confirmed that new signing Mikel Merino will be sidelined for several weeks after suffering a fracture in his shoulder during his first training session with his new teammates.
Rumours of an injury surfaced last night after the Spain international was spotted wearing a sling in a London restaurant.
Given his signing was only confirmed on Tuesday, it’s incredibly unfortunate for both the player and the club that this should happen so quickly.
Facing the media ahead of Saturday’s clash with Brighton, Arteta said through gritted teeth: “Yes, it’s very unfortunate. Yesterday he had a collision and he’s got a shoulder injury and it looks like he’s going to be out for a few weeks. First session with us.
“It is [bad luck], he was really excited, we were all really excited, everything was looking very good, he landed on the floor, Gabi went on top of him and it looks like he has a small fracture probably. We have to see [how long he’s out], he was in so much pain, we have to do some more tests on that and then we’ll have more conclusive answers.”
Arteta also confirmed that Gabriel Jesus will miss tomorrow’s match while he recovers from the groin injury sustained in training. While the injury doesn’t sound too serious, it sounds like he’ll be in the gym for a while longer.
“He’s progressing really well, he had a little muscle injury and he’s doing quite a lot of stuff already so we expect him to be with us pretty soon,” said Arteta.
As for Takehiro Tomiyasu who hasn’t been seen since the first week of pre-season training, it was less positive. The knee injury he sustained is proving difficult to overcome.
“At the moment it’s difficult to say,” said Arteta. “It’s a bit slow the process of the first phase of that injury, it’s probably one for the medical team to say more on that.”
Asked if the Japanese defender had resumed training, the response was “No, not yet.”
You have got to be shitting me.
I know right, you can’t make this shit up!
Gunna try and blue sky this.
It may well mean he misses the internationals and is back for the next prem game after Brighton.
But yeah. Laughably predictable.
Get well soon Mikel!
Abso-freakin-lutely?!!🥺🥺🥺
I think it should now be clear to the players than their hazing initiations are getting too rough…
It must’ve been a very physical rendition of Copacabana…
Jeez, let’s go back to making them stand on a table and sing a stupid song. And get down very carefully.
Arsenal’s new signing curse gathers pace!! Timber last year, Merino this. Ouch. All the best Mikel, hope it’s a speedy recovery.
At least we aren’t buying them injured anymore.
Progress, if you squint.
Or let’s buy them one year in advance
So Merino injury extent is not yet clear. It could be longer or shorter than a few weeks. Fingers crossed he is back before first CL game.
If his arm was in a sling then I’m guessing collarbone. Can be a tricky recovery.
Clavicle is typically more than the time frame the team have mentioned- mine was 7 weeks
Yeah, but you’re too busy playing sexy games in the theatre, shooting guns, and sucking up to Donald trump than training and doing proper physio…
You just had to say “too busy having fun and freedom”.
Fair critique…
2008:
Walcott, dislocated shoulder.
2012:
Theo Walcott: I am still fighting to forget my shoulder fears.
*uck!
Well that sucks but he has a few weeks to mend. Not quite a Kim Kallstrom or a Steve Morrow but close. These things happen. Evidently Big Gabi brings his A game 24/7. Hopefully he saved some for Brighton.
Is it defo big Gabi? Arteta just said “Gabi”.
If it’s martinelli I can just imagine Merino staring at him sadly and saying “But… I was going to free you” as the physios rush to his aid.
I am sure Arteta has them all playing with lots of intensity in training. Not that there was any intent to injure anyone, but I can definitely picture Gabriel and Merino competing hard against each other.
FFS! Talk about bad luck!
At least it is a shoulder injury for Merino and not a knee or something that would need even longer out and affect him more in the long term.
Good to hear that Jesus should be back soon too!
You’ve just gotta laugh or you’ll cry.
At least Timber made it to the first match last year.
Next years statement signing will probably break his ankles falling down the steps of the plane at the airport on arrival.
I give u 👍👍
Welcome to the Premier League…….training! Jokes aside, I was looking forward to seeing him play.
So Allen Iverson was right all along…
Fucking hell, we may as well just push the Zinny at midfield button at this point. Truly infuriating
Like a January signing!
Partey did it. Stop the new guy from taking his place!
He’ll be back when Partey picks up his customary muscle injury.
Haha it’s called months not weeks. Like when Martinelli just had a little cut. Terrible luck. Damn.
FFs, you got to be kidding me!..I know shit happens, but we done our time, why us again? Wtf!🤷♂️🙆♂️
This will be the most welcome interlull of all time then
Someone check in on Calafiori, please.
Oh for fuck’s sake, this is so bloody Arsenal. Mikel is very cagey when he has to report injuries, at least the player was seen out and about and wearing a sling, so at least his arm isn’t hanging off. Get well soon Mikel, and welcome to the Arsenal!
At least he wasn’t signed with a broken back 😂
yeah, as if we’d be stupid enough to do that…
Do we have some kind of extremely violent hazing ritual for new signings? We keep breaking them immediately!
Name one other similar incident.
Timber was injured immediately.
He eas never going to play against Brighton anyway, why is everyone complaining that he gets a holiday instead of some dumb international friendlies?
Because he’s going to be out for weeks, at least. Then he’ll need to be eased back in. Best case scenario is a couple of months realistically. No one is worried about just the Brighton game.
Is same as Timber last season!
Should bloody wrap these lot in cotton wool
Consider bringing in a forward. Even a stopgap would be better than relying on Jesus
Muahha..good old values..the spirit of Kolo Toure never left!!
Play Calafiori DM and it will be like a new signing!
It looks like through bad luck and possible ineptitude we are coming out of the transfer window weaker in midfield and up front. Can’t understand why we haven’t got someone to replace Nketiah?
This is the most Arsenal like news of the transfer market. We were getting too comfortable with Arteta and Edu.
The Arsenal I know is back! Here we go!
🤣🤣
💩💩💩💩💩
Can we just pretend to buy them? Then, “Gotcha! We signed in disappearing ink! We refuse to pay this silly price for a crocked Timber, Merino, Kallström. We will agree to nothing more than a 50% price reduction for your clearly defective goods!”
Should have sold Tomiyashu he is good but so injury prone
Fought so hard for 3 months for a player no one else was going to sign? Well that was worth it…
i don’t think it’s that bad, really. with the international games coming up, he’s gonna have a lot of time to settle in. look for a new house, a school for his children. get used to driving on the left, learn everybody’s names and watch a lot of videos of what he’s supposed to do on the pitch. i know we all want players to hit the ground running (not falling), but being able to settle in without the pressure of performing instantly might actually be better for him in the long term. let’s just hope for a speedy recovery