Arsenal limped through to the knockout stages of the Europa League last night and never looked like losing, but the game was overshadowed by the horrific injury to Danny Welbeck after just half an hour of the game, which left the players sad and distracted. Alex Iwobi admitted that it affected both teams, not just Arsenal. “It’s very challenging mentally, but sometimes it comes in the game and there’s been a lot of injuries, and unfortunately for Danny he’s had a few so we’re going to wish him the best. Both sets of teams were mentally challenged and we were able to continue with the game, but like I said, we wish him all the best and we will keep on encouraging and motiving him to get back.”
Unai Emery had very little to say about the actual games afterwards. He said: “It’s the worst news tonight, this injury. It’s clear that we are with him in these minutes. He was working well and he was having a good match. He had some chances too. His injury was with the mentality of the players. They [saw] it was a big injury. When you are playing football, when you are playing in competitive matches, it can happen. You don’t want it to happen but this is our profession.
“When one player has an injury like that, every player on the pitch they look at this injury. First it’s in your mind – you think for the player. But I think the players were concentrated on the match and we forgot this injury the next minute on the pitch. But when the match finishes, the first thing they did was ask for him.”
You could tell just by the reaction of Danny and his team-mates that it was not a normal injury, and Emery confirmed that as well. “Yes, now he is at the hospital. The news is that we are going to wait – but we think it’s a serious injury.”
Well there is not much we can do to help him now, but just sit and hope it is not quite as bad as it looks. It is very likely that Welbeck has now played his last game for the Gunners, unless the club gives him a years contract out of compassion to give him time to recover, like they did with Santi Cazorla…