Jurrien Timber’s hopes of a return to fitness before the end of the season remain in the balance for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta who are sweating after Ben White’s injury prognosis
Arsenal have learned that Ben White is due to miss the remaining matches of their season after suffering a knee injury, suspected MCL, against West Ham on Sunday. The right-back has been a key figure in the side over the past few weeks and helped them take hold of the Premier League title race, and qualify for the UEFA Champions League final.
White has had a revival of a season, even putting himself back in contention for the England national side, which also now looks all-but impossible for him to be involved with. For Mikel Arteta, it creates a major problem.
White had been starting due to the nature of Jurrien Timber’s situation. The Dutch international came off against Everton in March with a groin injury and has not featured since.
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Arteta confirmed ahead of the clash with West Ham that the situation was unclear as to whether he and Mikel Merino, also out recovering from a fractured foot, would feature again this season. “I don’t know,” he said.
“There’s still a fair bit to do, so everything has to be so smooth and quick if they want to have a chance to play any minutes.”
He added later, when asked whether the situation had grown more complicated: “Yes, and that’s been probably the most difficult thing to manage, with the player, with myself as well, because we didn’t expect it to take so long, and at the moment he’s not fit to play.”
Timber remains missing and has not been spotted in any of the training activities. He was present at the game against the Hammers and was standing with coach Gabriel Heinze during the warm-ups ahead of the match – his off-field leadership responsibilities still being called upon.
This leaves Arteta with the scenario where he has to decide upon a new right-back for the final three games of the season, in all likelihood barring a miraculous recovery by Timber. Cristhian Mosquera is the most obvious candidate, having come on at half-time to fill the role.
The unorthodox choice to move Declan Rice there in the immediate aftermath of White’s injury, seeing Martin Zubimendi come into midfield, could have been far more disastrous than it ended up being, as the Gunners survived till the break. Suggestions of Myles Lewis-Skelly or Riccardo Calafiori just risk breaking further connections and increasing the challenge.
Mosquera is expected to start against Burnley on Monday night as he prepares to establish himself in the position ahead of the Champions League final.
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