Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has urged Nuno Tavares to embrace the challenge in the absence of Kieran Tierney who is set to miss the rest of the season after sustaining a knee injury. He did not feature in their loss against Crystal Palace with Tavares named in the starting line-up. The Portuguese defender was less than impressive and was substituted at half-time.
“It is a bit ambiguous but he has a significant injury. We’ll have to keep assessing him and he will be out for some weeks. It’s an area where he had a previous injury as well. He felt it straight away and is not fit,” Mikel Arteta said about Nuno Tavares. “Our responsibility is to look after the players while they’re here but when they go to the national team, that is the job of [Scotland manager] Steve (Clarke). They picked aside to win the games. We have good communication with the national team but these things happen.”
“He’s just had surgery yesterday so it’s very early to understand how everything is going to develop. We don’t know what condition he’ll be after this period that we estimate he will be out. It’s too soon to say how long,” he added. “The player has to do the maximum he can to be in the best possible condition as quickly as possible and I’m sure he’ll do that. Once he does that, let’s see if he’s ready to compete and whether it will be a risk [to play for Scotland].”
“Throughout your career, you have to go through really difficult moments. He had some really good periods when he arrived at the club and was playing many more minutes than he was probably expecting,” he continued. “This is the development of any young player. You go through ups and downs and we’re here to help him to make his career better. He’s ready and he’s willing. He will be disappointed but that’s part of the job.”
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