Kieran Tierney is one of the most impressive members of the Arsenal first-team despite only joining the Gunners last summer.
The former Celtic man had a trophy-laden spell at Parkhead as he won several league and cup titles under Brendan Rodgers.
He moved to Arsenal last summer, he joined the Gunners while injured and he struggled for fitness before the suspension of the Premier League season.
After the restart, he came back as one of the fittest players at Arsenal and there are rumours that he was also very intense on the training ground.
The Sun has, however, revealed the injury hell he went through in his final season at Celtic and how it was so bad that he thought about retiring from the game.
He claimed that he had to take injections and steroids to play through some games for his former team and that people even called him to ask if he was really going to stop playing the game.
Speaking on Open Goal’s Keeping The Ball On the Ground, Tierney said: “In the November I got pubis problems, I had hernias and fluid everywhere around the area.
“But I kept playing and playing. I couldn’t get out of bed. I couldn’t walk – but I was still trying to play.
“I was taking injections every game. Two of them and painkillers.
“I was done. I had osteitis pubis and it’s a bad thing.
“Jonny Hayes said to me, ‘My mates have retired with this…this is bad’.
“Tom Rogic had similar and he said, ‘What are you doing, ya idiot? Tell them you can’t play…this is bad’.
“But I said, ‘I need to play, I need to play’.
“I missed games at Christmas but after Dubai I thought I’d try to get back in.
“I couldn’t run. I was at about 60 or 70 per cent and was taking steroid injections.
“Retirement was a rumour that was flying about and I was like, ‘This is mental’.
“Did I start to think that? It did creep in, aye.
“People were texting me saying, ‘You aren’t retiring are you?’
“And I was like, ‘Hopefully not!
“The season before the injury was a killer. I played something like 60 games.
“Just before Brendan Rodgers left, I played against Motherwell and was captain. It was my first game in a while.
“I felt okay but I wasn’t supposed to play against Hearts as I was down for the Hibs game after that.
“Lennon came in and said, ‘I need you to play for us’ and obviously I was going to.
“I was due to play 60 minutes but I had to stay on with the way the game was going.
“But we had two days of rest and then Hibs and I was cramping up on the walk before the game.
“I was done. I couldn’t do core or sit-ups. It was horrible.
“It was the worst time of my life. It was so hard.”
If it was that horrific then shame on the manager. What kind of person would allow a young player to risk a phenomenal career for the sake of a game or two.
Players want to play, but a manager needs to intervene and sit them when facing such dire injuries. Absolutely disgusting the manager didn’t step in to stop that madness.
Agree with you Durand. Absolute madness
Injury is the nightmare of every player. Unfortunately it has always remained the bane of Arsenal. Most seasons, our level was always drawn back by the number of our quality players that were usually unfit to play b’cos of injuries. Arteta & the Mgt must be wary of these unavoidable eventualities in their plans. May Kieran & other Arsenal
players have injury free season.
People are shaming, but isn’t the story with Koscielny similar? He finished seasons with injuries and taking injections to play. Modern game is cruel.
The same thing happen to some arsenal players. tieney all the way.