Have Arsenal REALLY fixed the Injury problem?

We know that Arsenal had a serious and costly problem with the fitness and injury situation of our players. If it was not obvious by the fact that we kept losing the likes of Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Kieran Gibbs and many more, it was proved when Arsene Wenger admitted that there would be an internal review which ended up with two top medical staff being brought in.

So it was disappointing to see Arsenal continue to top the Premier League injury list this season although I suppose we were a bit too optimistic to expect the problem to be resolved with just a click of the fingers. The review and the measures taken by the club did appear to start having a positive effect as the season wore on and we had fewer and fewer stars in the treatment room, but have we really sorted the issue out once and for all?

I am not so sure, especially after the latest Arsenal injury update on the Arsenal website. The manager revealed that he still does not have Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Danny Welbeck available. And we have still seen nothing of Mikel Arteta or Abou Diaby and they were supposed to be well on the way back to match fitness ages ago.

Mathieu Debuchy came back and was out again straight away and just how long does it take to get Theo Walcott ready to start a game? The flying England forward has supposedly been fit since the start of the year but Wenger keeps telling us to be patient and that these things do not just happen overnight. Fair enough but half a year?

I wonder if Arsenal really have fixed the problem or just enjoyed a few months of better luck. What do you think Gooners?

Tags Diaby ox Walcott welbeck

18 Comments

  1. Doesn’t feel like it. We were without Debuchy, Ozil, Walcott and others even Giroud for over 3 months

    That’s why another top striker and DM would be helpful. We can’t just rely on hope that Coquelin and Giroud are fit all season long.

    Maybe players are recovering quicker but the 1st half of the season was a nightmare

    1. Even if Giroud were fit and strong all season, he’s not half enough a striker for Arsenal.

      1. That awkward moment when Giroud scors 9 goals in 2 games at the beginning of the next season and goals on to bag 39 goals in all EPL games and I’m like: I said it!!! I’ve always said it, Giroud is worldclass, y’all doubters can go to hell!!!

        1. Tpo “KickAssFan”, IF Girould´s worldclass, why haven´t PSG, Real Madrid etc tried to buy him from us? I haven´t ever seen an article/rumour(s) about that. He needs at least 5 chances in a game to score 1 goal, I say he´s average, so did by the way King Thierry Henry, I think he knows more about scoring goals than any of us…

  2. Shad Forsythe said it would take at least a year for the changes to take effect, so anyone judging based on this season is being a bit too quick. I’ll reserve judgement until next season, reducing the number of injuries (long term ones particularly) is just as important as signing good players.

    1. Well said! Like you say, judge Forsythe next season. It will be interesting to see if there is something fundamentally wrong with our training methods/medical team or that we just have a lot of injury prone players, that will always break down no matter what treatment they get.

      For me, the key one is Walcott. I love this guy, and we all saw against Sunderland how badly we’ve missed him, and how delusional Wenger is for hardly playing him. But I am in two minds about giving him a new contract. I think it’s a big risk paying someone 100k plus a week, on another 3/4 year contract considering how often he’s injured. If Forsythe can sort Walcott out, then there’s hope!

      1. “Delusional” Wenger? Did you not hear Walcott’s post match interview – out of the horse’s mouth, he said he wasn’t up to full strength or speed yet.

        1. He’s been back for ages, and just look at his physique. Walcott is a naturally slim, and quick person. Some players who have been out injured that long will usually put a bit of weight on, and take a while to get back their match fitness. It doesn’t apply so much for him, and like I’ve already said…he’s been back for a long time. Even if he feels he’s not at full speed yet, he’s still faster than almost anyone else out there. Also, he’s completely over his injury, because if he wasn’t, then he wouldn’t be risked at all, not even for 10 minutes.

          We badly need Walcott, and Wenger should realise this. We can’t rap him up in cotton wool forever!

      2. A few weeks back, even Diaby was off the treatment table, but then its one thing to be ‘not injured’ and being at peak conditions [and for the long haul too]….perhaps, players like Walcott and the rest of the recovering gang are being protected to get them starting on a clean slate for next season. It is not unthinkable to have Cech, Vidal/Schneiderlin and Lacazette coming into the squad for next season and with that declaration by Arsene that there wouldn’t be any departures, we can safely say we’ll be having a bigger squad next season which allows for more genuine and comfortable squad rotations and increased competition for places, Flamini and Schzezny have not been much of a liability recently because they have been dropped for more competent players :).

      3. Clearly you’re the delusional one, an acl injury isn’t something good n takes a while let alone play in the epl n on top of that the family issues he had to deal with regarding family

    2. Exactly, he said it would take 6-12 months before any changes made an impact that could be seen. The first half of the season was the usual case of way too many injuries but since January (around his 6-7 month mark) we have halved our injury average and haven’t had more than 4 injuries at one time.

      ^^This is what should be scaring the other title contenders next season.

  3. medical practitioners are not miracle workers…
    preventive measures are already onsight…so
    Patience gooners…..patience…

  4. Personally I would say it is too early to judge before 12 months, we do not know what the change may of done, they may of advised to adjust training slightly and if that is so then it can take a few months for the body to adjust and not forgetting that it would of taken time to review and make their own judgment on what needs to be done.

    Patience is a virtue, lets hope we see the benefit next season after more of a break then what happened this time round due to world cup.

  5. i think the injuries might be because we are use to playing and training on a velvety perfect pitch in london colney and the emirates, (even the hale end academy is being sorted out, to be fitted with the same playing surface as the emirates on all 4 new pitches they are building there this year, so the junior teams get use to the playing surface from a young age that’s forward planning for you.)
    that playing on the other teams substandard pitches, probably plays havoc with the players limbs and muscles, thus injuries are frequent the other teams need to sort out there rubbish playing surfaces. lol

  6. i can see the board backing wenger big in the market this summer look at last summer he spent about £85million all in.
    so i would at least expect this season budget to be about the £80 million mark again so that would be big layout approx £40-50 million on a striker mostly, i would think then probably d/m would be between the £20-25 million mark and the rest left over to be use on any covering positions.
    i love all this world class player talk if is very liberating to hear wenger once again speak this way, he seems like a different man these days with the big talk again. not like someone looking over his shoulder to see if he has enough money to challenge for any top 4 position. i think he has realized that this is his next to last big window, to make a big impact in this team with the big names incoming to he might go for broke.

  7. Can injuries be totally be eliminated in the top flight league games of the Premier League? A lot of factors are responsible for players getting injured during the playing of a match or even during training. One main factor is the occurrence of accidents during games or training sessions. Fallings, intentional or unintentional kicking or tackling a player in a dangerous part of the body can lead to a player getting injured. And the kind of food taking by a player should not be sugar rich or if possible should only be little taken periodically or all together be avoid to make the player’s power resistant to picking up injuries. Sugar and yeasted bread is sweet and desirable to consume. But they can be slow poisons to the body’s power immune system. I recommend to the Gunners to stop taking or minimize the intake of sugar and sweet things like biscuits, wines, sweets, cornflakes, custards, too much maggi sauce or cubes, constant intake of wheat based food, bear and regular intake of milk should be avoided. I recommend for the Gunners to take Irish potatos prepared food. The Africans among them can also take yams based prepared food and gari food. I also recommend for the Gunners to be taken soups, omelette and vegetable soups seasoned with bitter leaf and little spices, vegetable salads with less salad cream. The Gunners can take cooked and rosted meat with less fats, stakes, chicken meat, cow leg meat, cow meat, bush meat, cow skin meat – (ponmo), fresh fish, club sandwiched, boiled eggs sandwiched, less grondnuts oil and vegetable oil. But much palm oil is highly recommended to be taken by the Gunners. The Gunners should avoid taking margarine butter but can take cheese. The Gunners should avoid taking softdrinks such as Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, and the like of it. But they can take soda water, fresh lemon and fresh bitter lemon fruits, occasional taking of colanuts is okay. The Gunners can once in 2 weeks take good fresh palm wine drinks, hot drinks like Snaps, Scottish whisky, Brandy and little Champagne during celebrations. These my recommended foods and drinks will undoubtedly help the Gunners power immune system to withstand injuries during playing games and also recover quickly from picked injuries. And more importantly, the Gunners MUST minimize their passions with their partners and any the intake of cigarettes, in hailing Shisha pipes and nitrous oxide should be abhorred.

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