Tuesday’s match against West Bromwich Albion was an important one for Arsenal loanee Omar Rekik, as he completed 90 minutes for the first time this campaign.

Omar Rekik playing for Wigan Athletic (Photo via Rekik on Instagram)
Omar Rekik playing for Wigan Athletic (Photo via Rekik on Instagram)

Arsenal defender Omar Rekik has spent the season away from the Gunners on a couple of loan spells, first with Sparta Rotterdam and then with Wigan Athletic, but it hasn’t all gone to plan.

Rekik struggled to break into the team in the Netherlands, making six substitute appearances and no starts between August and January.

Arsenal acted to recall the 21-year-old, sending him out to Championship side Wigan, but the centre-back picked up an injury setback on his debut.

After almost a month out, Rekik return to the starting lineup for Wigan against Birmingham City at the weekend, coming off after 58 minutes.

Rekik was then involved again for Wigan on Tuesday, when he finally completed his first 90-minute senior match of the season against West Brom.

Wigan slipped to a tight 1-0 defeat to remain bottom of the league, which is sadly nothing out of the ordinary for them.

But Rekik put in a solid display, including making nine recoveries, four clearances, and completing 82% of his 73 passes.

Omar Rekik playing for Wigan Athletic (Photo via WiganAthletic.com)
Omar Rekik playing for Wigan Athletic (Photo via WiganAthletic.com)

The key thing is simply that the Tunisia international is playing again.

After a tricky year of setbacks, it looks like he might have nailed down a starting spot, with 11 games still to play in the current campaign.

A strong couple of months would set Rekik up well for next season, and despite Wigan’s position in the table, they could still avoid relegation if they put a run together.

That run might be difficult to get going on Saturday, however, as Wigan travel away to league leaders Burnley at 15:00 GMT.