Glenn Hoddle thinks Declan Rice will be back ‘pretty quickly’ for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal after suffering an injury against Tottenham.
Arsenal’s club-record transfer had to go off at half-time when the scores were level, with Jorginho coming on in his place.
Straight after the restart, Bukayo Saka would put Arsenal back into the lead from the penalty spot, but that’s when Declan Rice’s injury proved to hit the home team in the face.
Standing inside his own half, Jorginho dwelled on the ball for too long and was robbed of possession by James Maddison who proceeded to feed Son Heung-min for Tottenham’s second equaliser.
Tottenham legend Hoddle stated that Arsenal ‘missed’ their all-action midfielder because he is a ‘really strong cog in their team’, as he told Premier League Productions (24/09/23 at 7:15 pm).
Now it’s a case of hoping that the England international returns to the field as soon as possible because Hoddle thinks he will.
Declan Rice injury
“He has done it (got injured) in the game,” said Hoddle. “Arteta didn’t say that he has had trouble with his back all through the week and we put him in and it didn’t work out.
“He has actually said ‘there is something wrong with his back here’. And he has probably done it to protect himself for the long-term. Whatever he has done, he hasn’t made it up, that’s for sure. He’s not that type of guy and they missed him.
“But I think Rice will, hopefully, be back pretty quickly from Arsenal’s point of view because he is a really strong cog in their team.”
Strong start by Declan Rice
There was a lot of pressure, noise and hype around Rice’s name when he first joined the club.
And whilst Kia Havertz has struggled to find his feet, Rice himself is thriving and is already looking at home.
With Thomas Partey also out injured, then Mikel Arteta needs his star midfielder back sooner rather than later, especially with the Manchester City clash around the corner.
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