Mikel Merino has revealed that dreaming of scoring the winner in the Champions League final helped him through his injury nightmare. The Arsenal midfielder has been sidelined for nearly five months with a stress fracture in his foot and feared he might miss the World Cup. But now he is fit and firing as Arsenal prepare for their first Champions League final in years.
Merino's Injury Ordeal
Merino admitted he felt "devastated" after undergoing surgery on a stress fracture that kept him out for almost five months. The Gunners midfielder confessed his worst fears were missing the World Cup and the run-in to Arsenal's season, which saw them win the Premier League title for the first time in 22 years.
However, Merino is now fit again and hoping to rejoin Arsenal's squad for the final Premier League game of the season at Crystal Palace, where they will also lift the trophy. His teammates have kept him going by telling him he will come back to score the winner in the European Cup final, and now they have secured their place in Budapest on May 30.
Support from Teammates
Merino said: "It has been very hard to be honest. My feeling was I was playing through pain for a little bit 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."
He added: "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. But I felt very loved here. 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. 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. I feel pleased and happy with the group we have."
Return to Training
Merino admits to being a bad watcher but says being back in training and ready for Palace has given him a huge lift. The Spain midfielder also revealed how this team evolved into Premier League champions after recent heartbreak.
He added: "Honestly this morning I woke up and I was feeling like the first day of school. Being around my team mates for the first time again, unbelievable. To get all that love from them is great. That’s the goal, to be back at Palace. I’m with the team. Whenever the gaffer needs, I’ll be ready to do whatever he wants."
Team Maturity
"It’s hard to pinpoint the exact thing that changed everything. Sometimes in football it’s about details. You’ve seen in past title races they’ve been very close and it’s just one or two games that change the narrative. This season you could see a very mature team. With the little streak of games that we were not performing or getting those points, maybe in a different year we could have crumbled and gone down. The truth is this team has shown strength with our individual meetings, everyone together pushing in the same direction. The team came from that situation very strong. That was the changing point, where everyone got together and said hey, we are strong enough mentally to overcome this situation. We did it."
