Thomas Partey gave an amusing one-word response to a headline suggesting he could miss the start of Arsenal’s pre-season this summer.

Ghanasoccernet.com reported on Saturday that “injured Arsenal star Thomas Partey could miss the start of pre-season”, to which Partey himself responded, “why?”

The obvious implication is that Partey isn’t aware of any reason why he won’t be involved in pre-season over the summer, which is good news in itself.

In fairness, it was only the headline of the Ghanasoccernet.com article that was misleading.

The quotes inside the piece came from Ben Dinnery, who said, “It’s about managing the situation well. If you rush him back, that could follow through to pre-season and then ultimately next season. It’s all about risk and reward.

“Given that it is a World Cup year which has pushed pre-season forward, he could conceivably miss pre-season if he’s rushed back and suffers a setback.”

So whilst Dinnery technically did say that Partey could miss the start of pre-season, he only meant it as a hypothetical if the midfielder was rushed back.

If Arsenal take their time with him, which it seems they’re doing, then there’s no reason to believe he won’t be back from injury in plenty of time for the new campaign.

In other words, there’s no reason to panic. For the time being, we have every reason to believe Partey is still on track with his recovery.