Gabriel Jesus has undergone surgery on his knee. The Brazilian suffered the injury whilst playing with his country at the World Cup and has since come home and undergone tests with Arsenal.
Suspected damage to his medial ligament was the reason for the procedure. Arsenal released a statement which however did not provide any insight on the possible return date of the striker.
This is far from the first time that Arsenal have lost players during key moments of a season. The injury record of the club up until this point had been relatively good with only Oleksandr Zinchenko, Mohamed Elneny and Emile Smith Rowe missing extended periods; although there is some hope Jesus may not miss as many games as the latter pair.
READ MORE: Mikel Arteta faces second World Cup Arsenal 'disaster' following Gabriel Jesus injury concern
Doctor of physical therapy of 3cbPerformance, Dr. Rajpal Brar assessed the description of the injury to provide some hope. Dr. Brar provided a comparison with Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka’s injury in September of 2021 which kept him out for an extended period last season.
He tweeted: “Return timeline after MCL surgery is typically 10-12 weeks. Ligament heals quite well due to robust blood supply.
“Granit Xhaka was back in 70 days & would’ve been sooner if not for accompanying fracture as well. True timeline will be wait & see.”
Arsenal used Albert Sambi Lokonga and Thomas Partey as a pairing in the absence of Xhaka who did return well ahead of schedule. It was thought that he might miss three months and return just before the end of 2021.
"Granit is progressing really well but obviously we know it is a long-term injury unfortunately and he’s not going to be available [on Monday night]," Mikel Arteta told the press the following month after the injury. "With Granit, I don't know, but I'm sure that if you tell him three [months], he will be thinking two.
“He will be trying to do extra work to try to minimise that time, that's for sure. We have to do it in the right way because it's a significant injury and we want to have him back properly when he can."
Xhaka made his return on December 6, missing nine games across 69 days, although he did not have to undergo surgery. Jesus has the small benefit of having more than three weeks without Arsenal playing any football and should he recover at a similar pace to his teammate and miss the same length of time he’d return just days before Arsenal host Manchester City on February 15.
Also, it is worth noting that Xhaka has not suffered an injury since his recovery from the knee problem. If Jesus’ recovery mirrors that of Xhaka, Arsenal have a great chance of having the Brazilian back for the crucial remaining three-plus months of the season.
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