Hello goonersworld. I am sure we still feel good about our result against Leicester, it was an enjoyable performance from some of our fringe players.
Although, it was a bittersweet feeling for me because Emile Smith-Rowe got injured again, and I am afraid he could be out for a while.
No fanbase understands the frustration and the pain of an injury-prone player more than the Arsenal fanbase, as we have witnessed an alarming number of these kinds of players.
Players like Jack Wilshere, Robin Van Persie, Tomas Rosicky, Abou Diaby, Aaron Ramsey, Thomas Vermaelen and to some extent Theo Walcott have had terrible injury records at Arsenal, these players were at that time considered to have huge potential, but most of them couldn’t have make the much desired impact due to the many injuries they suffered.
In recent years, we have been able to reduce the number of frail, injury-prone players on our books, but it seems like ESR is the latest victim – seeing him go down yesterday made me feel bad for him.
| Season | Injury | from | until | Days | Games missed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20/21 | Knock | Jan 28, 2021 | Jan 29, 2021 | 1 days | – |
| 20/21 | Shoulder Injury | Sep 11, 2020 | Oct 24, 2020 | 43 days | 8 |
| 19/20 | Head Injury | Sep 25, 2019 | Oct 5, 2019 | 10 days | 2 |
| 19/20 | Groin Injury | Aug 8, 2019 | Aug 16, 2019 | 8 days | 2 |
| 18/19 | Adductor problems | Apr 24, 2019 | May 10, 2019 | 16 days | 2 |
| 18/19 | Hamstring Injury | Jan 15, 2019 | Apr 12, 2019 | 87 days | 16 |
| 18/19 | groin strain | Dec 1, 2018 | Feb 28, 2019 | 89 days | 6 |
| 18/19 | Bruised Rib | Sep 27, 2018 | Oct 3, 2018 | 6 days | 1 |
Injury History provided by Transfermarkt
He has missed a total of 260 days since the 2019 season due to eight different types of injury, and in my opinion, that is too much for a 20 year old, who is at the verge of establishing himself at the highest level. How do you judge a bad signing or a flop? A flop is someone or a performer who is unsuccessful. A footballer is mostly called flop if he does not perform up to expectation as a result of many reasons, for me, a player that cannot stay fit to even perform consistently is a flop, best example is Keita of Liverpool; a very good player that can’t stay fit.
Now I am not saying he is a flop yet, but if his injury woes continue, we would be forced to find a replacement that can stay fit to help our cause and if the replacement does better, it would be difficult to get back in the team – but the good news is, he is only 20 and we still have a long way to go.
I think he has been well managed after his long lay off but an injury-prone player will most likely remain injury-prone for the better part of his career. My point is, at the moment, ESR is not someone we can depend on due to his fitness, a good attacking midfielder should be our priority in the summer. If we had money to spend, I would get more than one to be honest, I do not want to experience another depressing season where we say “if only ESR could stay fit”, he is simply not ready (fitness-wise) to have such weight on his shoulders.
Emi Buendia and David Brooks are players I really want us to sign. The former is a specialist attacking midfielder and massive goal threat. Being a south American, he is a tireless hard worker who would come in handy when we decide to play a high press. He is also a creative machine with 9 goals and 10 assists this season in the Championship, I have no doubt he would improve our team immensely.
That said, I wish ESR a speedy recovery and I hope he has an injury free career.
What do you think?
Goonerboy.