Mikel Merino describes the strange injury that kept him from making his Arsenal debut

Mikel Merino has talked about the mental anguish he endured as a result of the weird injury that gave his Arsenal career the worst possible start.

The Spain star turned down offers from Barcelona and Atletico Madrid to join the Gunners after his impressive performance at Euro 2024, where he was a key player in his nation’s triumph.

Declan Rice’s ideal midfield partner was chosen by Mikel Arteta as the former Real Sociedad star; however, his plans were shelved as the 28-year-old sustained injuries in his first training session with his new team following a collision with Gabriel Magalhaes.

‘To come in here, you want to have a nice few days to show everybody what you are capable of, to show why they have put faith in you and then the first thing that happens is you break your scapula,’ said Merino.

‘It is tough to recover from that mentally. Everybody here in the club was really nice to me, really lovely, you could feel the love and support of everybody.

‘It was such an unlucky moment. If you see the action… it’s just …I mean… I haven’t seen an injury like this ever in my career.

‘But, well, these are things that happen. Obviously it was not the best timing, but at the same time I like to look at the pros, the bright side of it.

‘This gave me a lot of time to think, to get to know my team-mates, to get to know the staff, to work on myself, the things that I need to do in terms of tactics, in terms of physicality and I think I am a much better player now than I was four weeks ago.’

Merino belatedly made his debut in last night’s 2-0 Champions League win over PSG and earned the praise of his manager as he gave a glimpse of the ball-winning qualities that have become his trademark.

In just a short time in north London, Merino has been wowed by a manager who has already opened his eyes to aspect of the game that he never knew existed.

‘It’s something that is amazing, to be honest with you,’ said Merino, when asked about training under Arteta.

‘They do some things that I have never seen in my career. The methods they use are completely new to me, so obviously it takes some time to adapt.

‘I don’t want to tell everything that we do, but there is no rest between one moment and the other. They are always challenging you mentally with different stimuluses. It makes you always all the time aware of what is happening around you.

‘I think that when you get it, you are in a different level because they challenge you every single day – not only physically, but mentally. That makes you be sharp mentally and that’s what you are going to find out in the game.’

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