Morning all.
Arsenal released an update on Takehiro Tomiyasu yesterday, revealing the Japan international has had surgery and will miss the rest of the season. They said:
Assessments have confirmed that Takehiro Tomiyasu sustained a significant injury to his right knee. Tomi has had successful surgery in London on Tuesday and will be ruled out for the remainder of this season.
Everyone at the club will now be working hard with Tomi, so he can join pre-season training ahead of next season.
They are a bit light on specifics, but it sounds like a knee ligament injury of some kind. The framing of it as a ‘significant injury’ to his knee is exactly the same as the Mohamed Elneny update we got back in January, but it does differ after that. Where Tomiyasu is going to work towards being available for pre-season training, Elneny’s talks about returning as soon as possible, so I hope we can gather from that wording that it’s not an ACL injury. You can’t suffer an ACL rupture and be back for pre-season. Not this year anyway.
Anyway, fingers crossed that Tomi can make a full and uncomplicated recovery. Even if he did lose his place as first choice right-back to Ben White, he has made 31 appearances in all competitions this season, so he is by no means a fringe player. To put it in context, Thomas Partey has made 30. I know he starts more, but it just demonstrates Tomiyasu’s importance. As a defensive substitute, he’s a fantastic option, and I hope we don’t miss him too much between now and the end of the season.
Speaking of knee injuries, I watched the first part of the Gabriel Jesus series via the official website, and it’s well worth a look. Check it out here. What’s kind of incredible is that although he felt something in his knee at the time, he didn’t experience any real pain, and there wasn’t anything to suggest this was, to borrow a phrase, a significant injury. It was only when the scans were examined that they realised how serious it was, and the decision was made quickly to bring him back from the World Cup to undergo surgery.
It’s always interesting to get a look behind the curtain at things like this. Even if it is made for #content, there’s still stuff you don’t normally get to see. I remember there was an excellent one regarding Laurent Koscielny after he ruptured his Achilles tendon in our Europa League semi-final against Atletico Madrid (the same game Partey started at right-back, in fact!). The physical effort that goes into the rehab and recuperation is incredible, and while things didn’t end well for the former captain, watching that documentary would leave you in no doubt as to his professionalism and desire to make a full recovery so he could pull on the shirt again. It’d also make you wonder what on earth drove him to refuse to go on tour that summer, but that’s a discussion for another day, I guess.
Elsewhere, I’ve seen that Thomas Partey has been accompanied on international duty by one of the Arsenal physios. I don’t know if this is a comfort, in that we’ll have someone close to hand who can advise and assess the Ghana manager (Chris Hughton) and his staff; or if it means we’re so worried about him that he needs someone by his side at all times.
We all know how important this player is for us, but I can’t help but worry a little bit that he’s carrying a knock or a niggle that isn’t sufficient to keep him out of action, but still requires the presence of an Arsenal physio. It could just be very sensible, but it is difficult at this point not to fret a bit. Ghana have two African Cup of Nations qualifiers against Angola (home and away) tomorrow and Monday, so let’s keep everything crossed they go without incident.
For some extra reading this morning, and going back to the right-back situation, Lewis has a new Tactics Column looking at the influence of Ben White in that position. He was superb against Crystal Palace on Sunday, and if he can continue that form all the way to Wolves, we’ll be in good shape.
Right, let’s leave it there for now.
