Arsenal have confirmed defender Hector Bellerin is facing up to nine months out with a serious knee injury.<\/p>\n
The Spanish full-back ruptured knee ligaments as he stretched for the ball during the Gunners\u2019 2-0 victory over Chelsea on Saturday, and left the pitch on a stretcher.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s cruel timing for the 23-year-old, who was making his first start since mid-December having overcome a calf problem, and his frustration and agony was clear.<\/p>\n
He will now miss the remainder of the season, and possibly the start of the 2019\/20 campaign.<\/p>\n
Rumours of the severity of Bellerin\u2019s injury surfaced on Monday evening, and Arsenal confirmed the news with a statement on Tuesday morning,<\/p>\n
“Further to the injury sustained during our match against Chelsea on Saturday, we can confirm that Hector has ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee,” it read.<\/p>\n
“Hector will undergo surgery to repair this in the coming days.<\/p>\n
“The rehabilitation process is expected to take between six to nine months and therefore rules Hector out of action for the remainder of this season.<\/p>\n
“Everyone at the club will now be working as hard as we can to ensure Hector is back on the pitch as soon as possible next season.”<\/p>\n
Bellerin’s Arsenal team-mate Rob Holding suffered a similar injury in a 2-2 draw at Manchester United on December 5.<\/p>\n
While the January transfer window would allow Arsenal to bring in cover at right-back, Emery does have options in Stephan Lichtsteiner, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Carl Jenkinson – who was expected to be allowed to leave the Emirates Stadium this month before Bellerin’s setback.<\/p>\n
Bellerin was trying to stay positive on Twitter and thanked fans for their support.<\/p>\n
He tweeted (@HectorBellerin): “There are no obstacles in life you can’t get over.<\/p>\n
“Been a difficult couple of days but I’m positive and ready to take whatever challenge comes my way. Thank you so much for the love and messages, you are incredible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal have confirmed defender Hector Bellerin is facing up to nine months out with a serious knee injury. The Spanish full-back ruptured knee ligaments as he stretched for the ball during the Gunners\u2019 2-0 victory over Chelsea on Saturday, and left the pitch on a stretcher. It\u2019s cruel timing for the 23-year-old, who was making…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}