Arsenal defender Jurrien Timber is expected to be out until preseason next year with the cruciate ligament rupture suffered at the beginning of this season.
That’s according to Algemeen Dagblad, who say the Netherlands are keeping an eye on the defender with a hope of him being in Ronald Koeman’s squad for the Euros.
The newspaper covers how now fewer than 40 players are still hoping for selection in Koeman’s squad for the tournament in Germany next summer and Timber might be one of them.
Spot 40 is currently being held open for those without much of a chance and Timber is one of them, with his name ‘written very lightly in pencil’ at this moment in time.
He joined Arsenal in the summer from Ajax but suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in his first game and was expected to miss the rest of the season with the injury.
He was ‘always a certainty’ for the Dutch side, though, and they are keeping hope that he will be available next summer.
According to AD, the ‘realistic scenario’ seems to be that Arsenal will decide what happens with the player at some point next year and even then, the expectation is that he will only be allowed to join in pre-season training at best.
They then state that ‘you never know’, indicating that there is some hope in the national set up that he may be available before then.
Realistically that doesn’t seem likely but with the squad yet to be decided and plenty of time left until it has to be, it seems Koeman and his team have Timber down on the list, albeit in pencil rather than pen.
