Omar Rekik made his second debut for Wigan Athletic over the weekend, on loan from Arsenal for the season.

Arsenal defender Omar Rekik is on loan with Wigan Athletic this season, the same club he spent the second half of the 2022/23 campaign with.

The centre-back had initially gone out on loan to Sparta Rotterdam in the summer of 2022, but he’d struggled to break into the side, making just six appearances totalling 27 minutes.

Arsenal opted to recall Rekik in January, loaning him back out to Wigan.

That second spell went much better, with the Tunisian international playing 756 minutes. It was only an injury early in February that kept him from playing even more regularly for the side.

Rekik has had a number of injury problems in the last couple of seasons, so the priority for this season had to be getting him a consistent run of games.

Wigan seemed like the perfect place to do it, with the 21-year-old already having established himself with the club.

The League One side completed a deal on deadline day, and Rekik made his debut on Saturday against Cambridge United.

The game went well, with Rekik playing 78 minutes of the 2-1 victory.

Interestingly, the loanee played at left-back, and it will be worth keeping an eye on whether he remains in that new position over the coming weeks.

“I think with what happened last year, it makes it a little bit more special to be back here,” Rekik told WiganAthletic.com.

“As everyone knows, it was a hard season with everything that went on. I’m very happy to be back.

“The Club has a feeling of a family – it doesn’t feel like you’re coming to work. I am always happy to come in, as it’s such a warm Club. It wasn’t a hard decision to come back.”