Merino 'fit' and 'ready' after freak injury
[Getty Images] Mikel Merino hopes to be back in action when Arsenal take on Crystal Palace on Sunday after overcoming a confusing foot injury. The Spanish midfielder has not featured since January and needed both surgery and extensive rehab on the issue. "It's a stress fracture in a very strange part of the foot where not even the specialists had seen before," he explained.
"It was a weird one. At the beginning I was a little scared, I'm not going to lie. I didn't know examples, we didn't have them from other people that had done the same injury.
We didn't know what to expect. "The first couple of weeks were tough. I tried to crack on with it, have the right mentality, be positive and with the right motivation to try to go forward.
Everything has gone perfectly since. " Merino, 29, says the foot is no longer on his mind and he has resumed training with his team-mates. He insists he is "fit" and "ready to go".
During his recovery he revealed he needed use of a mobility scooter and that parts of the recovery process were "very hard" mentally. he explained: "With the mobility scooter it's just trying to bring fun out of it, see the sun. I couldn't walk for two months.