Injuries, they say, are part and parcel of the
beautiful game but like a thief at night, it
sneaks on you when you least expect it.
Arsenal’s Theo Walcott has had his fair share of
injury worries in the past with a dislocated
shoulder being a big concern at the early part
of his career with the club. He has also had
some ankle and hamstring problems as well
down the years.
When he managed to stay fit for the entirety of
a season, he slammed in 21 goals and many
more things were expected of him in the
forthcoming campaign for both club and
country. Walcott began the 2013/14 campaign
at a rather slow pace in terms of his output in
the final third, with his assist to Olivier Giroud
in the North London Derby being his most
telling contribution in the early part of the
campaign.
He finally broke his goalscoring duck with a
technically astute finish against Olympique
Marseille but he suffered an abdominal injury in
the build up to the home clash against those
goons from Stoke and required a surgery to
mitigate the problem.
With Olivier Giroud falling ill and Nicklas
Bendtner suffering an injury to his ankle,
Walcott was afforded a chance can to strut his
stuff in the center forward in the North London
Derby against Tottenham on Saturday. His
linkup play and movement was brilliant but his
finishing was a bit wayward.
However, on the 81st minute after Arsene
Wenger had made all his substitutions, Walcott
was tackled by Danny Rose and he couldn’t get
back up. While he was stretched out, he trolled
the Spurs fans by reminding them of the
scoreline and they pelted coins at him, but the
Arsenal fans responded by throwing red and
white scarves at their hero while signing his
songs.
In his post-match press conference, Wenger
wasn’t too sure about how bad the injury was,
citing that it might just be a stretched ligament
or just a kick, but after an extensive scan on
Monday, the club regrettably announced that
the speedster has sustained a ruptured anterior
cruciate ligament of his left knee, which means
that he’ll be out for at least six months.
If you do your calculations right, you don’t need
any soothsayer to tell you that Walcott’s
2013/14 campaign for the Gunners is over and
he’ll play no part in England’s quest for glory in
the World Cup which is very painful. On the
international scene, Sven-Goran Eriksson put
him (as a 16-year-old) on the plane to
Germany in 2006, Fabio Capello didn’t deem
him good enough to join the party in 2010 and
now, injury has robbed him of a chance to
shine in the big stage this time.
By the time, Russia would be hosting the World
Cup in 2018, Walcott will be around 28/29-year-
old, which ultimately means that it would
probably be his last World Cup.