Arteta asserted that the decision to give the 25-year-old only 30 minutes during the game was pre-planned because he just recovered from a lengthy injury
By Mosope Michaels
Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta has calmed frail nerves after Kieran Tierney gave a lot of the fans of the club cause for concern during their 5-3 win over FC Nurnberg on Friday evening.
The Scottish international lasted just 30 minutes in what was his first appearance for the club in over 100 days.
Kieran Tierney missed the latter part of the 2021/22 season after undergoing knee surgery in April and had to watch from the sidelines as North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur leapfrogged the Gunners in the race for Champions League.
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However, Arsenal fans got a huge boost going into the new season when the defender announced that he was on course to get fit for the start of pre-season training.
He said, “It’s tough working full days in the gym on your own, but you’ve got to keep on pushing yourself. There’s no point feeling sorry for yourself. I don’t look for or expect sympathy from anyone.
“My target is to be back for the end of June and the start of pre-season at Arsenal. I’m on course for that. My rehab’s going well.”
Tierney was handed a start against FC Nurnberg and it turned out to be a mixed first Arsenal outing in a while, as he looked a little rusty – which is understandable given the length of time he’s been out.
The left-back was, however, withdrawn in the 30th minute for Cedric Soares, and given his worrying injury record, the supporters of the club feared the worst.
Arteta during his post-match-press conference later confirmed that Kieran Tierney’s substitution was a tactical one and not injury-induced.
He also said the decision to give the 25-year-old just 30 minutes was pre-planned because he is still recovering from a long-term injury.
“Today it was a bit of a puzzle because some players could only play certain minutes. Kieran, for example, could only play 30 minutes and we wanted to give him the first 30 to have a good warm-up after such a long time,” Arteta said.
