Lazio reportedly still intend to sign Nuno Tavares on a permanent deal from Arsenal this summer, despite the player’s repeated injury absences.
Arsenal’s Nuno Tavares is currently out injured for loan club Lazio, with his condition unclear and suggestions he could even miss the remainder of the Serie A campaign.
This is the defender’s sixth muscular injury of 2024/25, yet his loan club are still reportedly keen to sign him permanently.
Il Messaggero report (via La Lazio Siamo Noi) that Lazio’s current plan is to activate Tavares’ purchase clause before looking for a summer buyer. The club like the player, but barring a late push into the Champions League places it seems like they’ll need to cash in.
In many ways, that will be music to Arsenal’s ears. The club will receive a fee of £7-7.5m for Tavares’ initial transfer to Lazio, and Il Messaggero claim the Gunners then have a 40% sell-on clause in his contract.
If Lazio get anything like the €35-40m (£30-34.3m) they want for Tavares’ sale, that would mean at least £19m going to Arsenal – for a player originally signed for under £7m.
But it will require a club being willing to take a risk on Tavares’ recent injury history.
The left-back first suffered a hamstring injury in November, then an adductor injury in January.
Tavares’ third muscular injury came at the start of March, forcing him to miss a game against Udinese, and though he returned to the pitch the following midweek, he then suffered a setback and missed another Lazio fixture as well as the entire international break.
Once again, Tavares made his comeback on April 6th, only to suffer his third injury in a month. He then played 26 minutes against Bodo/Glimt on April 17th before leaving the field in tears.
In spite of all that, the 25-year-old has played 28 games and provided nine assists in 2024/25. He clearly has value when he’s available.