Arsenal star Jurrien Timber has revealed that he played through injury towards the end of last season, despite Arteta knowing about his struggles.
The 24-year-old told the Dutch talk show Matchday that in the latter stages of Arsenal’s Champions League campaign, he was dealing with both an ankle and a heel injury, but due to the pressures of the UCL, he was forced to play through the pain. It’s been revealed that Arteta risked worsening things by playing him in the double-header semi-final against PSG.
Timber was forced to undergo surgery last month to try to address his ankle problem, putting the full-back’s pre-season in jeopardy. He missed six of Arsenal’s final seven Premier League games as the club aimed to keep him fit for the Champions League, but that continued action may have put him in additional trouble.
Timber said: “It got worse and worse. I had an Oranje scan, and the conclusion was that I had to undergo surgery at the end of the season. I wanted to play at Arsenal, but it was hard. Sometimes the pain is much worse. I’ve been through how that feels now. I only trained one day before the match. I thought I have no idea how to finish this, because I couldn’t even run. But in the second half I got adrenaline again and in the 80th minute, it was time to get out. I didn’t train all those weeks and was stressing for that second semifinal. It hurt so much. The manager thinks: ‘Jur has had a scan, it can’t get worse, make sure you’re ready’, but he doesn’t see how much pain I’m in.”
The recent surgery caused Timber to miss the Netherlands’ most recent World Cup qualifiers, with North London rival Micky van de Ven slotting into the back four for their recent 8-0 battering of Malta. His goal will be to get fit for the Gunners’ pre-season fixtures against AC Milan, Newcastle and Spurs in Singapore and Hong Kong in July.
