Arsenal left-back Kieran Tierney is in line to make a return to first-team training next month after a recent lay-off for knee surgery. The 25-year-old has endured a stop-start opening to his career at the Emirates. However, reports in the Scottish press suggest his rehabilitation is progressing positively, with a return to training by early July deemed sooner than most expected at the North London club.
In of fitness, injuries have book-ended Tierney’s Arsenal career to date. He missed 19 games in 2019/20 with a shoulder injury, while knee injuries sustained in January and April 2021 kept him sidelined for a further six and eight games respectively. It’s fair to say that those knee issues have failed to fully disappear ever since and therefore, the club’s medical department took the decision for the Scotsman to undergo surgery in March this year.
A Gym Session Gone Wrong: Tierney Explains The Cause Of His Knee Surgery
Tierney revealed in a recent interview that he “felt something” in his knee during the first half of the Gunners’ league game at home to Wolves back in February. Arsenal’s medical team undertook a string of tests on the knee and ed him fit for action, while the defender itted he wasn’t feeling any pain from it following that Wolves match.
However, it was after his second game on international duty with Scotland that the knee would give way once again in innocuous fashion. The 25-year-old said he was “doing some leg exercises” and his left knee clicked hard. The initial prognosis was a 12-week lay-off and that looks likely to be accurate, even if he may have been able to shave a week or ten days off that final total.
Mikel Arteta says that Kieran Tierney will see a specialist today for his knee injury. He also says Thomas Partey felt an issue in the same place that he was injured previously. Doesn’t look good.
— Connor Humm (@TikiTakaConnor) April 5, 2022
Today’s Premier League players need to be supremely robust to cope with the physical rigours of the modern game. The leading teams are often battling on three or even four fronts, which can cause no end of fixture congestion during the course of a season. Academic researchers have previously found a correlation between packed fixture schedules and a downgrade in player intensity. The way Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta wants his full-backs to play, Kieran Tierney certainly needs to be fit and healthy to provide width and an additional creative outlet.
Kieran Tierney Is Integral To The Way Arteta’s Arsenal Play
It’s fair to say that Tierney’s understudy, Nuno Tavares, toiled under the pressure of chasing that all-important Champions League qualification spot. The Portuguese youngster, who ed Arsenal last year from Benfica, put in some error-strewn displays in Tierney’s absence. The worst being his first-half display in the 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace, which saw Tavares promptly withdrawn at the interval.
Reports suggest that Arteta is looking to send Tavares successful clear-out of deadwood to enable Arteta to freshen up the squad.
A Demanding Pre-season Schedule Awaits Tierney And Co.
Arsenal are scheduled to begin their pre-season commitments in early next month, with a trip to German outfit FC Nurnberg on 8th July. Tierney will hope to prove his fitness in time to be considered for travel. His return to action will be keenly felt by the Gunners, who narrowly missed out on the fourth and final Champions League spot last season. Tierney was also missing for Scotland’s do-or-die World Cup semi-final playoff decider with Ukraine, which the Ukrainians eventually won 3-1 at Hampden Park.
Tierney’s last competitive appearance came on March 29th when he featured in a 2-2 draw for Scotland against Austria. The three-to-four-month lay-off for surgery could prove invaluable if he can stay fit for the entirety of the 2022/23 campaign. Arsenal’s jet-setting pre-season schedule is by no means easy on the likes of Tierney, given that the team will be flying stateside for a warm-up game with Everton in Baltimore, followed by a double-header of games in Orlando against Orlando City and Chelsea. That’s followed by a closing friendly on home soil against Sevilla on 30th July.
