Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino is set to have surgery on Monday for a \u201cvery rare\u201d foot injury, with medical projections suggesting a return to training in May, according to EFE. That timetable would place him in contention for the decisive final weeks of the 2025\/26 campaign as Arsenal pursue multiple trophies.<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta has been careful not to read too much into recent league position changes. When asked about the nine-point cushion opened by the victory over Sunderland, the manager labelled it as \u201cnothing.\u201d \u201cWe still have to win so many games to achieve what we want,\u201d he stressed, a mock sense of weariness in his voice. \u201cSo, there\u2019s no focus on that, that\u2019s something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the recovery goes to plan, Merino could be available for a congested May schedule. Arsenal have four Premier League games that month, three of them London derbies: Fulham at home on May 2, West Ham away on May 9, and Crystal Palace away on May 24, with a Burnley home fixture on May 17. The club also face a Champions League semi-final second leg around May 5 or 6, an FA Cup final on May 16 if they reach it, and a Champions League final on May 30 if they progress.<\/p>\n
Merino will miss the Carabao Cup final with Manchester City in March. Should Arsenal reach the FA Cup final, he would likely be available for that match on May 16. There is also a possibility he could play some role in the Champions League semi-finals and, if fit, the final in Budapest at the end of May.<\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s first World Cup fixture is on June 15 in Atlanta against Cape Verde, with Uruguay to follow on June 27 in Mexico; those dates could affect Merino\u2019s international availability depending on Spain\u2019s progress and selection decisions.<\/p>\n
Merino was not an automatic starter under Arteta, but his physical profile provided a specific option against aerial teams. Leeds United and Sunderland were cited as fixtures where his attributes would have been especially useful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Merino will have surgery and is expected back in May possibly available for May cup and league ties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,969],"tags":[1066,1047],"class_list":["post-6631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-premier-league","tag-carabao-cup","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}