Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, speaking to the media on Tuesday, provided an update on Jurrien Timber’s recovery following his prolonged absence due to an ACL injury. The Gunners haven’t counted on the Dutchman since his injury in the Premier League Match Day 1 win over Nottingham Forest (2-1).
With photos and videos confirming that he is back on the training pitch, Arsenal fans are keen to know when they will see him play again.
Arteta is optimistic about his £34 million (2023) recovery progress, saying: “He’s doing very well; he’s back training. He’s not far off, but the thing is, that last step. I think he has a good chance [of playing again this season]. I don’t know the percentage, but he’s going to push it as far as he possibly can.”
However, he says that some of the final nuances of his healing process remain difficult to explain, as Arteta stated while revealing when he expects him back: “He hasn’t played any minutes, so does he need a game with the U21s? Does he need two games? We are going to have to see, especially because he’s training with us, and we need to see how long that will take him. That last part is tricky and sometimes takes a while. Hopefully, as soon as possible.”
Arsenal may benefit from a quality player like Jurrien Timber in their current circumstances, as they compete for the league and the Champions League.
In the few games the 22-year-old played for Arsenal, including the Community Shield and pre-season friendlies, he showed flashes of brilliance. It’s unfortunate that we haven’t been able to enjoy his services in recent months.
Daniel O
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I would have been really lovely seeing Timber play with Saliba and Gabriel as arsenal last line of defence so as to allow Ben White to invert because that’s exactly how Arteta wanted to play them this season, this would have allowed the ever calamitous Zinchenko to watch from the bench of be moved to midfield role, The one thing arsenal should look at is add another strong CM/ box to box to pair with Rice and Odegaard so as to allow Kai Havertz to continue as a false nine it would be lovely if arsenal go for any of Camavinga or Aurelien Tchauameni because one of them will have to leave Real Madrid soon because of game time Bellingham,Valverde ,Brahim Diaz,Arda Guler,Toni Kroos,Camavinga and Tchauameni those are some of the quality midfielders Madrid possess and most wouldn’t get game time which would make good targets for arsenal this is my opinion though.
this has been a bit of ‘an Arsenal thing’ for many seasons now, echoed by MA’s words above.. a player out for many months with career threatening injury if not managed sensibly and he’s potentially talking about playing him without even a practice game or 90 minutes anywhere.. I wonder how much tackling he’s done in the past, say, 3 weeks.. he cannot possibly be match fit.. and there’s an element of mental confidence in the injury having healed..
or maybe just wheel him out if desperate, pumped full of pain-killers.. need to be extremely careful here if looking to use at all this season..
Please do not play him this season, give him a full pre-season so he’s ready to go for the start of next season
he can play some minutes. that is how you integrate players after long term injuries. he can be spared in intense matches
There’s 9 matches left in the EPL and we are trying to win the league + have massive opposition in the UCL…..which of our games aren’t intense matches????
I’d say only if we are winning games 3-0 he should maybe play the last 10-15 mins otherwise why risk it?
Maybe sub appearances for the final few games? Why risk aggravating his injury for the final few games of the season?
The team has been solid in his absence, so instead make sure he is 100% fit and ready for next season.
Kiwior has played we’ll, why try to fix what isn’t broken?
Jesus and Zinchenko should also be backups, Havertz and Kiwior have been better in their starts.
To me am very happy how Arteta has built his squad we are seeing goals coming from every player which is good but concerning Timber returns he need not to rush he has to recover fully then they start play him or even next season thanks.