Noel Whelan believes Emile Smith Rowe will now struggle to break into the current Arsenal team after suffering another injury.
The midfielder has become injury-prone after becoming a key member of the Gunners squad.
Arsenal bolstered the squad in the last transfer window, and in his absence, the senior team is thriving.
This means anyone that wants to break into it has their work cut out, and Smith Rowe is in that category.
If he stays fit, he can build momentum and push the other players above him on the pecking order for a place on the team.
But he is battling with his fitness, and Whelan believes that could become his undoing.
He tells Football Insider:
“It’s one of your worst nightmares as a footballer – these niggly injuries.
“Especially after a game in a cool-down.
“He was struggling to break into the side and this is going to make life even harder for him.
“When it’s stop-and-start and you’re trying to break back into the side and show your worth – it’s frustrating.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Smith Rowe is one of the finest talents to emerge from our academy, and the midfielder will want to play regularly for the club, especially because this is a World Cup year.
However, if he cannot stay fit, it might even force him to eventually leave the club on loan.
Okay. Let’s see what will happen next. As ESR could recover fully well from his re-occurring niggling groin injury to play for club and country this season sooner than it is expected he will.
Best of good fortune to ESR in his football career at Arsenal and for the England senior national team.
This is one of the results of having limited squad which made some of the players to be used and risked through out last year. Dear SR quick recovery.