BUDAPEST -- At Arsenal in 2026, almost everyone has an injury story. Maybe you were a victim of the hamstring pandemic year. Perhaps you had a hairline fracture on your foot so peculiar that specialists pronounced they had never seen the like before.
Whatever the specifics for each player, there is one common theme that emerges. Whether you're fit to play or not, you are still a part of the team. That might sound obvious and unremarkable but it is not as commonplace as you might imagine. Rehabilitation can be a lonely world for top players, a different rhythm with different staff, often cut off from the first team. A great many managers past and present, from Jose Mourinho to Brian Clough, are known to have had difficult relationships with their injured players, to almost cast them aside until they were of use on the field again.
At Arsenal, the signs of a different approach have been there for those looking hard enough. Jurrien Timber, sidelined with a nagging groin injury, on the pitch at the London Stadium before the biggest away game left on the calendar. Ben White, a knee brace encompassing his right leg, sat next to Dr. Zafar Iqbal in open training before the Champions League final. The stream of players who rock up pitchside at the Emirates Stadium, not always in a box somewhere up high, in the midst of their rehab to be present. These are the most visible of many small details that make injured players feel like they are still a part of the collective endeavour.
At London Colney too, injured players are at a closer proximity to their teammates than at many other clubs. All the way through this season, Arteta has been at pains to emphasise the "connection" he wants to see in all of his squad. They have got the message.
"All the players and staff, they helped me believe in myself and to get back to my best," said Kai Havertz of his experience coming back from the knee injury he suffered on the opening day. "Everyone told me from January how there is so much to play. That is where my momentum also shifted and I am just happy that I am here again now. I try to help the team every day. I tried that also when I was injured, just to help them off the pitch. That is always important."
His experience dovetails with that of Mikel Merino, who rehabilitated a foot issue that could have caused him to "cry myself to extinction". Instead he recovered to a chorus of teammates telling him that he would recover in time to score the winning goal in the Champions League final. There are, of course, occasions when the best course of action is for players to get some space -- Merino spent some of his rehabilitation back in Spain -- but he has remained an active part of the club's leadership group. This is still not commonplace. While watching from afar, Merino has felt empowered to share his view of the Gunners' performances in the run in, praising the physical work they put into the cause.
"I felt very loved," Merino said of his time on the sidelines. "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 team mates. I tried to be close to them and found out they were very close to me as well."
While the desire for connection comes from the very top, there is only so much Arteta can do to foster the atmosphere in the dressing room. Enter club captain Odegaard, whose ankle injury early in the 2024-25 season fired the starting pistol on what has been two years of pretty frequent issues. "It's so important that the team is all together," he would tell those who knew him well. He emphasised the importance of injured players attending as many meetings as possible, turning up to matches even in street clothes.
"It has not been easy being out with injuries," said the Arsenal captain, whose physical issues have not subsided this season. "It has been a lot this season for me, which has been very frustrating. What can you do? You have to adapt, you have to help the team in other ways, when you're not on the pitch, you have to try to help off the pitch."
In the midst of the title celebrations, Odegaard stopped for a selfie with sports therapist Takahiro Yamamoto, a more than 10-year servant in North London who is widely admired among the squad. "He's brilliant," said the captain. "I have to say all of our staff, everyone working for the club, they do an amazing job every single day.
"It's just an incredible group of people together. We're a proper family. We want the best for each other; that goes for the staff as well."
In short, there has been a conscious effort within Arsenal to keep their group as tight as possible, injuries or otherwise, to build the bonds that fired them to a Premier League title. Subconsciously, perhaps, the Gunners, though they would never admit it, have come to understand something deeper about the state of their squad. Though the ideal of a fully fit squad is always worth striving to, it might just be a pipe dream, particularly when they play for a coach who demands so much with and without the ball as Arteta.
Arsenal's recruitment last summer showed a team that accepted it was better to plan for injuries than to hope for a clean bill of health. That is how they won the league in a season where Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Timber, Havertz, Viktor Gyokeres and a host of others fell well short of 30 starts. Only Martin Zubimendi and Myles Lewis-Skelly got through this season without any injuries whatsoever and in terms of pure volume of absences, Tottenham and Chelsea were the only teams in the Premier League to be hit harder. If there is a silver lining to these many absences, at least everyone knows what their teammates are going through.
Fortunately for Arsenal, more of their injury stories are having a happy ending than they might have expected. After the yeoman's work he has done for them over the years, it was a cruel blow that Ben White suffered a knee injury that will rule him out of the Champions League final and the World Cup. Merino, however, returned in time that he might just be able to fulfil those predictions. Timber, too, is back just when Arsenal most need him. Who knows, perhaps that positive environment fostered around the injured players gave him that few extra percent that ensured he is ready to start the biggest game of Arsenal's season.
Add CBS Sports on Google Join the Conversation comments
