The Liverpool centre-back sent love heart emojis to his fellow countryman on Instagram in support of this gut-wrenching news.
Jurrien Timber was a major signing for Arsenal this summer and he had made a quite stunning impact, both in pre-season and during their Community Shield win over Manchester City – it earned him rave reviews.
But in the second half of Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest over the weekend, he was forced off injured, only to find that he has now ‘sustained an injury to his anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee’, as the club posted on their Instagram.
Understandably so, this is going to be hard to take for the fans, his manager Mikel Arteta, his teammates, but most importantly, the player himself.
Timber sent the following message on IG to fans, with several players, from Virgil van Dijk to Bukayo Saka, either sending lover heart emojis or praying emojis to the player.
“Gutted to share my injury is more serious than expected, especially after the warm welcome I’ve received,” said Timber.
“I wanted to repay you on the pitch, which will not be possible for the forthcoming period. I’m blessed with a lot of great people around me. Together we will do anything to get back as soon and strong as possible
“For now, I’ll be supporting our team from the stands of course. Thanks for making me feel at home in such a short period of time, see you at The Carpet.”
What next for Arsenal after Timber’s injury?
This is a body blow to Arsenal because Timber was proving, during these very early stages, an important piece of the jigsaw that could improve their chances of becoming champions of England.
Other than Oleksandr Zinchenko, they had somebody else that could come into the midfield and make the ball talk from fullback, but now that is out of the window.
Will Arsenal dip into the transfer market again? Would FFP allow them to? They may have to sell someone off, in order to achieve that, but either way, this has rocked Arteta’s plans going forward and he has to remain calm in order to make the right call, for the long-term.
