Jurrien Timber has revealed Mikel Arteta did not know how much pain he was in as he played through injury towards the end of last season. After an injury-hit first campaign at the Emirates Stadium where he was restricted to only two appearances due to an ACL hammerblow sustained in their opening game against Nottingham Forest, the Dutchman went on to play 48 times for the Gunners in 2024/25.
Timber was a regular in Arteta's team at right-back, notably starting ten of their 14 Champions League games and 27 of his 30 Premier League appearances. The 24-year-old did not feature in the team's last four league fixtures, however, and he duly underwent ankle surgery in May prior to the season finale against Southampton.
Talking on Matchday, the talk show of music group Broederliefde, Timber discussed the injury issues he faced in what remained of the season as he elected to play on through the pain barrier with Arsenal competing for the Champions League trophy. He revealed he struggled in the European semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain because of a heel issue on the same foot as his ankle injury.
“It got worse and worse. I had an Oranje scan, and the conclusion was that I had to undergo surgery at the end of the season. I wanted to play at Arsenal, but it was hard,” he said, as reported by Voetbal International via Sport Witness.
“Sometimes the pain is much worse. I’ve been through how that feels now. I only trained one day before the match."
On his semi-final appearance against PSG while carrying a heel injury, he said: "I thought 'I have no idea how to finish this', because I couldn’t even run. But in the second half I got adrenaline again and in the 80th minute it was time to get out.
“I didn’t train all those weeks and was stressing for that second semi-final. It hurt so much. The manager thinks: ‘Jur has had a scan, it can’t get worse, make sure you’re ready’, but he doesn’t see how much pain I’m in.”