Per Mertesacker – The Latest Update On His Injury…

Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker has given another update on his recovery from ankle surgery, and it sounds like he’s recovering very well so far.

The defender, who is affectionately known as ‘The Big Friendly Giant’ by some Arsenal fans, picked up a nasty ankle ligament injury during the FA Cup win over Sunderland in early February and it’s feared he could miss the rest of the season. However, the German gave an extensive overview on how things are progressing on his official website permertesacker.de and it seems he’s well on the road to recovery.

His post is pretty long so i’ll just give a brief summary. Per is already off crutches and now wears a protective boot to protect his ankle. He is walking comfortably despite the ankle still being swollen and he confirmed there have been no complications so far.

The next step in his recovery is to do some swimming before hitting the gym to work on the cross trainer and treadmill. It’s at this point we’ll have a better understanding of when he’s likely to be able to return to the training pitch. Here’s some selected quotes from permertesacker.de:

“I underwent an operation two weeks ago in Tübingen. As of now, I can report that all’s going pretty well for me, to be more precise: for my ankle. I was able to put aside the crutches relatively quickly.”

“I’m able to walk rather normally thanks to a custom-made boot and a splint that prevents the ankle from twisting. The ankle is still swollen, but since I’m walking daily more and more fluid is being, so to speak, “lymph drained”. “

“So far, there have been no complications whatsoever as regards the wound, the scar or the stitches that have already been removed. After all, there is always a small danger an infection creeps in – but nothing like that has happened.”

“Everything went great and soon I’ll be getting into the water, to do hydrotherapy, for stimulating and speeding up recovery. Then, next week, we’ll increase the load, at one point I’ll be using what is known as the cross trainer, later the treadmill.”

“When that’s done, there will be another x-ray, probably done by Dr. Müller-Wohlfahrt in Munich, to see how well the bone’s grown together. Then we’ll decide when I can place maximum load through the foot again, with an eye towards the training pitch.

“So, at the moment it’s all going according to plan, but it’s only when we get to the phase of placing load on the foot that we’ll be able to see what we’re looking at, in terms of the length of the lay-off.”

See the full transcript at permertesacker.de

Mertesacker then goes on to say how difficult it is for him to be separated with his family, who are still in London as he recovers in Germany, but he understands it’s for the best.

We wish Per all the best with his recovery and hope he can get back on the field before the season ends.