SAN FRANCISCO, January 10, (THEWILL) –Â It was mixed fortune for English Premiership side Arsenal in the injury department during their FA Cup fixture on Saturday. Manager Mikel Arteta had to alter his wing and defensive plans as a major player, Gabriel Martinelli, came down with an injury.
As innocuous as it appeared, the injury Martinelli suffered while the team warmed up for their FA Cup tie with Newcastle “didn’t look good” according to Arteta.
The impressive 19-year-old was in the squad to start the third round tie at the Emirates Stadium. It was, for Arteta, an attempt to build up the Brazilian’s match fitness with the pacy winger being away for a number of months due to a knee ligament injury that kept him on the sidelines.
Only for Martinelli to go down in pains before a ball was kicked. He was in tears and very obvious anguish as he was helped away from the field. According to the club, Martinelli’s ankle will be scanned in the coming days to ascertain the severity of what could be a crushing blow, the latest in a series for the young man.
If Arteta’s tone, when speaking about the initial read of the injury is anything to go by, the outlook may be bleak. In after-match comments, the manager confessed to be broken on the youngster’s behalf.
“I am gutted. I was in my office before the game and one of the coaches came in and told me that Gabi had hurt himself, that he’d twisted his ankle.
“I went to the medical room and he was in tears. He was in a lot of pain and we’re going to have to see how he is. It didn’t look good. I imagine that we’re not going to have good news with him.
“We really want to know what’s going on. He’s a character and he wants to play. He doesn’t care and can handle pain but I don’t know. Hopefully there is nothing too serious but to start with, it didn’t look too good.”
The forced substitution of Martinelli before the match started appeared to put a pall on proceedings in the evening’s game for Arteta and Arsenal overall. However, the performance of young attacking midfielder Emile Smith Rowe, himself a substitute too, and of the every reliant Bukayo Saka, lifted the dark clouds around and about the Emirates to the detriment of Steve Bruce’s Magpies.
For not the first, second or third time this season, Arsenal had their young players bringing the best out of the team and being the difference the club has been seriously lacking for the better part of the 2020/2021 season that very nearly dragged the Gunners into the relegation end of the league table.
The young attacking midfielder Rowe stepped off the bench, and staving off nearly being sent off, led the Gunners to victory in extra time, proving, all over again, to be the difference in what had otherwise been another laboured home performance with older club players drastically below par in almost every way.
It is unfortunate that Martinelli, one of such young talents injecting fresh blood, pace and the potential to take the game to the opponent, will now be unavailable for another possible stretch of time after only just gaining enough fitness to return to competitive first team. What that will do to his mental frame of mind is only imaginable given his love for playing actively week in, week out.
Arsenal can only hope other young guns in the club will be spared further injuries to allow the club keep their upward swing in motion rather than add to their injury woes especially with their current fine vein of form.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
