Mikel Merino on Injury: 'Two Options, Cry or Keep My Head Up' Ahead of Arsenal Return

Mikel Merino is back just when Arsenal might need him the most, but the Spain international has revealed he might have "[cried] myself to extinction," after the unique injury he suffered that threatened to derail his season.

Merino has been sidelined since late January after suffering a hairline fracture on his right foot that specialists had never seen before. However, the 29-year-old is due to return to full training with Mikel Arteta's squad on Friday and said involvement against Crystal Palace in Sunday's final Premier League season was "the goal". Being part of the squad for next week's Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain seems an increasingly live prospect for Merino, who feared much worse after initial assessments on his foot.

"It's a stress fracture in a very strange part of the foot where not even the specialists had seen before," said Merino. "It was a weird one. At the beginning I was a little scared, I'm not going to lie. I didn't know examples, we didn't have them from other people that had done the same injury. We didn't know what to expect, what path to take during the recovery, and if I was going to be able to play again.

"It was very hard to be honest. My feeling was I was playing through pain for a little bit [before the injury] but I wasn't expecting that a big fracture was going to happen there. When I got the news and they said I was going to be out around five months, I could only think about missing the World Cup, missing the end of the season with my team and not being able to help them. I was devastated at the time. It took me a couple of days to recover from it.

"I had two options, to go down and cry myself to extinction or keep my head up, be positive, and try to use my time to improve other aspects. Working as hard as I can is the way I approach life."

Whatever the mindset, this was still a long journey back, and Merino revealed he could not so much as walk for two months. On the bright side, that did at least deliver an iconic scene on his Instagram page as he 'walked' his dog with the aid of a mobility scooter, "a fun way to see the light of day".

Merino has proven to be an extremely valuable contributor for Arteta since his arrival from Real Sociedad in the summer of 2024, his 77 games in all competitions, including lengthy stints up front (which create the kind of goal-heavy statistical profile you see below), when the likes of Kai Havertz and Viktor Gyokeres have been dealing with injuries. Only a year after joining the club, the midfielder/quasi-forward was elected to the first team's leadership group. His influence over youngsters in the dressing room, his reliability, his willingness to step into unfamiliar roles to aid the team: all of those are qualities his manager and his teammates highlight when speaking in praise of a very popular teammate.

Add that to the very real on-field impact Merino has delivered, 15 goals and eight assists since arriving, and it is no wonder that the rest of the Arsenal squad rallied round him like they did. After all, many of them have been in the same position that Merino found himself in in February, fearing what their absence might do to a team that needed everything they had to overhaul Manchester City in the title race.

"I felt very loved," said Merino. "I also wanted to be around the team, give them my support, even though I was injured. Sometimes, as a player, you can be a little selfish there. You're injured, you want to do your own things, only focus on your recovery.

"As an injured player also you have a role to go through with your teammates. I tried to be close to them and found out they were very close to me as well. Every time they saw me, they were asking me how I was doing, if I was better, telling me they were rooting for me, and that I was going to get back soon enough to help them and score a header in the Champions League final.

"Those conversations always give you a little extra motivation, make you feel included."

Perhaps there will be time to fulfil his teammates' expectations. Returning to a light session with the team on Thursday felt "like the first day of school" for Merino, who was immediately into drills that began with him passing his way through the coaching staff's high press and ended with him meeting crosses into the box with thundering headers. It looked like the sort of player who could play a role, albeit likely from the bench, in arguably the biggest European match this club has played for 20 years.

"My foot is great," he said. "I'm not even thinking about it anymore. I'm just really pleased to be outside with the lads today. I've been training really hard, in the grass and inside with strength and conditioning coaches and physios, trying to give everything every single day to be as close to perfection when I'm back with the team.

"I'm very good. I feel fit. I'm ready to go."

Players who have to watch the final stretch from the sideline often speak of a tinge of disappointment at not being able to help. Not Merino. "I feel like I've also won it from within. I experienced the last part of the season from the outside and suffered a lot, especially seeing that stretch when the team wasn't playing so well.

"But it's been a joy to see how my teammates and the fans have experienced it. It's been many years of suffering for this generation, finishing second and hearing all sorts of things from the neighbors.  We finally broke that streak, and giving this title back to the fans is very special."

And if he needed one last chance to test out that injury, well Tuesday's title celebrations afforded him exactly that. "That was the acid test. If my foot could withstand those jumps, it could withstand anything."

Join the Conversation comments

_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/arsenal-mikel-merino-injury/)._