Mikel Merino has opened up on his Arsenal injury nightmare, fun using a mobility scooter and his chances of returning to action for his club this weekend
Mikel Merino returned to Arsenal training on Thursday, joining the group for some light work after the week’s post-Premier League title celebrations. The team were seen together at the UEFA Champions League final media day, but Merino was a surprise addition, running out slightly later than the main group.
The players huddled around Merino and welcomed him back after forming a tunnel, a regular tradition for returning players from injury. The Spaniard has been missing since the start of the year for Arsenal.
football.london reported at the time that the surgery on his fractured foot would see him have to go without any strenuous weight being applied for around eight weeks but aimed to be running in late April, early May. The timeline has been positive and now Merino is ready to rejoin the group.
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“I’m very good. I’m very happy,” Merino told reporters. “My foot is great.
“I’m not even thinking about it anymore. I’m just really pleased to be outside with the lads today.
“I’ve been training really hard, in the grass and inside with strength and conditioning coaches and physios, trying to give everything every single day to be as close to perfection when I’m back with the team. I’m very good. I feel fit. I’m ready to go.”
At the time of the injury Mikel Arteta had made reference to the oddity that was the injury. The foot is one of the most resistant bones in the body, needing to take the weight of a person and impacts from walking, running and jumping.
To have suffered a fracture is indeed quite bizarre. Merino explained, to the best of his ability, that the stress fracture he had suffered was a shock, even to the experts.
“It’s a stress fracture in a very strange part of the foot where not even the specialists had seen before,” he said. “It was a weird one.
“At the beginning I was a little scared, I’m not going to lie. I didn’t know examples, we didn’t have them from other people that had done the same injury.
“We didn’t know what to expect, what path to take during the recovery and if I was going to be able to play again.
“The first couple of weeks were tough. I tried to crack on with it, have the right mentality, be positive and with the right motivation to try to go forward. Everything has gone perfectly since.”
Merino explained the emotional toll of the process but how he saw the fun side in the end, even needing to use a mobility scooter to get around.
“It was very hard to be honest,” he said. “My feeling was I was playing through pain for a little bit but I wasn’t expecting that a big fracture was going to happen there.
“When I got the news and they said I was going to be out around five months, I could only think about missing the World Cup, missing the end of the season with my team and not being able to help them. I was devastated at the time. It took me a couple of days to recover from it.
“I had two options, to go down and cry myself to extinction or keep my head up, be positive and try to use my time to improve other aspects. Working as hard as I can is the way I approach life.
“With the mobility scooter it’s just trying to bring fun out of it, see the sun. I couldn’t walk for two months. It’s a hard time on crutches. The mobility scooter was a fun way to see the light of day and enjoy time with the dog.”
Arsenal have two games left to play and their final match of the Premier League season away to Crystal Palace where they will lift the Premier League trophy could be the perfect occasion for Merino’s return. A match with no stakes, and both sides having European finals to play in the following week.
It is a good opportunity for a run out for Merino and to see how his body responds to the conditions. It would be highly unlikely the attacking midfielder would be in contention to start the final regardless of his injury, but he has been so impactful for club and country that his return is still massively valuable.
“That’s the goal,” he said when asked about returning for the weekend. “I’m with the team. Whenever the gaffer needs, I’ll be ready to do whatever he wants.”
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