Kieran Tierney had been carrying his season-ending knee problem for a while before the international break, according to a report.
Kieran Tierney recently underwent surgery on a knee injury, bringing an early end to his season with Arsenal.
The left-back wrote on Instagram that the operation “went well”, and thanked everyone for the messages of support, but he’s still not expected to feature until the summer at the earliest.
Charles Watts tells the Arseblog podcast that Arsenal knew Tierney had been carrying this problem for a while, but he informed them after the international break that it was starting to cause him real problems.
Arsenal aren’t blaming Scotland for the injury, they just came to the decision that Tierney needed surgery following his post-international break scans.
Personally, I still don’t see the justification for playing Tierney in two international friendlies for 180 out of 180 minutes. The fact it was a known issue arguably only makes it worse that the national side took that decision.
Whether or not it would have actually made any difference if he’d taken the fortnight off, we’ll never know. Perhaps this surgery was already an inevitability, and the friendlies just made that fact clear to Tierney and Arsenal.
Charles Watts previously reported on Twitter that the club are at least hopeful Tierney will be back in time to start pre-season training in July. From a Scottish point of view, they want him back in June for the World Cup qualifiers.
On that subject, Mikel Arteta didn’t give a clear answer over whether the left-back would be available by June.
“I don’t know,” Arteta admitted. “He just had surgery yesterday, so it’s very early to understand how everything is going to develop, he’s going to be out for the period that we estimate and in which condition he will be after that period I think it’s too soon to say something else.
“I think the player has to do the maximum he can to be in the best possible condition as soon as possible, and I’m sure Kieran will do that.
“Once he is there let’s see if he is able to compete and with what kind of risk or not, but that should be good.”