Ornstein confirms fresh injury blow – key Arsenal star struggling with groin issue

Arsenal star Hector Bellerin is struggling with a niggling groin injury and is taking painkillers just to get himself available for selection, according to The Athletic’s David Ornstein.

Bellerin has endured a tough time with injuries over the past couple of seasons as he missed the vast majority of 2019 with a cruciate ligament injury that kept him on the sidelines for over nine months.

The 24-year-old then suffered a hamstring injury in December which kept him out of action for nine matches in all competitions and he’s struggled to regain full fitness since his return to the field.

Bellerin’s form has been patchy in recent weeks and it may be down to the fact that, according to Ornstein, the full-back has been playing through the pain barrier due to a troublesome groin tear.

The Athletic journalist claims Bellerin sustained the injury in training before Arsenal’s match with Newcastle United on February 16 and is forced to take painkillers just to manage the pain.

Despite the injury, Bellerin played the full ninety minutes against Newcastle and then Everton a week later, before coming through 84 minutes against Olympiacos, so it’s safe to say Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff haven’t exactly protected the Spaniard.

Playing so much football while carrying an injury no doubt aggravated the issue and Bellerin was left out of the FA Cup win over Portsmouth last Month night, however, he returned to action with a substitute appearance against West Ham on Saturday.

Sokratis has been deployed at right-back recently as Arteta has been reluctant to use Ainsley Maitland-Niles but I hope the club look after Bellerin and give him the time he needs to fully recover from this groin issue.

It doesn’t look like that’s the road they are going down though as Ornstein claims that, despite Bellerin feeling discomfort when he tries to cross the ball, Arsenal are putting him through extra training sessions to try and get him back to full fitness.

Bellerin has only played 90 minutes 10 times since returning from his cruciate ligament injury in September so he’s clearly struggling to regain full fitness and you’d expect him to pick up knocks along the way.

However, I don’t think it’s sensible to play him through this latest injury as we’ll only end up making it worse. Let’s be honest, Arsenal don’t have much left to play for this season following our Europa League exit so it’s better to give Bellerin some time off so he can fully recover.