Mikel Merino Reveals Retirement Scare After Injury Last Season

In an incredibly moving piece with The Players’ Tribune, Mikel Merino spoke about how he feared his career might be over after he suffered a very rare foot injury that left him out injured for three months.

The Arsenal midfielder suffered a stress fracture in his right foot in late January. However, the severity of the injury was unparalleled to what doctors had seen before. Merino had originally been given a timeframe of six months to fully recover but, concerningly, the specialist who had conducted the scan had ‘never seen a stress fracture in that part of the foot’.

Even more worrying was that the doctor had spoken to ‘five of the best specialists in the world’ regarding Merino’s injury, all of whom had also never seen that specific injury before. That uncertainty drove Merino to great fear. He said, 'Nobody knew how my foot would recover, or if it would recover at all. Part of me feared that I would never play football again.'

With the injury happening at such a crucial part of the season for Arsenal and with the World Cup on the horizon, it seemed ‘impossible’ that he would play a part for either club or country again that season. However, Merino took a decision to have two screws drilled into his foot for support and accelerate his recovery. 'Vamos, put them in,' Merino insisted when he was asked about the option to have those screws installed.

Away from the pitch, Merino struggled to adjust to life living in a protective boot and on crutches. He ‘couldn’t go to the supermarket’ and ‘couldn’t even get himself a glass of water’. His wife, Lola, had to care for him even when she was heavily pregnant. “I love London, but in winter it gets dark at like 3 pm. As Spaniards, it’s hard. I was dealing with the worst injury of my career,” Merino said regarding his struggles with life whilst injured.

Everything around Merino’s recovery centred around making Spain’s World Cup squad, even though his expected recovery would mean he wouldn’t return to the pitch until September. Merino spoke to head coach Luis de la Fuente over the phone and ‘told him everything the doctors had said', excluding that his recovery before the competition was deemed 'impossible', with the hopes of making the final squad, which would be named in late May.

Fast forward to the end of April and Merino had started to creep nearer to the pitch. Just days after his son was born, he had his first training session after the injury. As Merino ‘laced up his boots and did a little jog’, he felt no pain and could finally ‘see the light’.

However, by late May, Merino had still yet to play any minutes for Arsenal, and with just two games of the season to go and four more days until de la Fuente announced his squad, Merino fought to buy himself invaluable minutes. 'I spent all week arguing with the boss and the physios,' Merino admitted, as he forced his way into the squad to travel to Crystal Palace on the last day of the Premier League season.

The plan was for Merino to return for the Champions League final, but that game was set to be played after Spain's national team squad announcement. Merino ‘had to show Luis he was ready’. After a week of going back and forth with Mikel Arteta and the club, an agreement was made which allowed Merino to play the final half hour of Arsenal’s title-winning campaign.

Merino had made a miraculous recovery from a relatively unknown injury and was included in the Spain squad to travel to America for the World Cup. He scored the winning goal in Spain’s victory over Portugal in the round of 16 before scoring the winner in Spain’s 2-1 triumph over Belgium in the next round. Spain won the World Cup with Merino playing a pivotal role in the world champions’ success, despite being told it was ‘impossible’ he would even be playing football at that point.