Arteta Provides Positive Timber Update, Hints At U21 Runout

Arteta is close to yelling Timber…

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is confident Jurrien Timber will play again this season and has hinted that the Dutchman will soon get a runout with our U21 side.

Timber has been in full training for a month following his ACL injury on the opening day of the Premier League campaign and has entered the crucial part of his rehab.

Arteta has alluded that timing his return to the field is quite difficult given the lack of opportunities as we chase the title and the Champions League.

Throwing Timber into such an intense environment would be unfair and equally dangerous considering the nature of the injury he’s recovering from.

Arsenal’s U21s next take to the field on April 8th and one suspects the club is eyeing that date as a potential window to load Timber with some minutes.

“He’s doing very well, he’s back training,” Arteta said in his pre-match press conference ahead of Wednesday’s clash against Luton.

“He’s not far off, but the thing is that last step, he hasn’t played any minutes so does he need a game with the under-21s, does he need two games?

“We are going to have to see, especially because he’s training with us and we need to see how long that will take him. That last part is tricky and sometimes takes a while. Hopefully, as soon as possible”

Seeing Timber return to the pitch this season was always going to be a bonus and much will depend on how his knee reacts to his first competitive minutes of the campaign.

With Takehiro Tomiysau, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Thomas Partey now fully fit, there isn’t a rush for the former Ajax man to return and bolster our full-back options.

If the 22-year-old does return this term, it will be interesting to see if the Netherlands national team call him up for this summer’s European Championships.