Arsenal’s ‘huge blow’ as £32m signing Mikel Merino is injured on first day of training

New Arsenal signing Mikel Merino suffered a suspected fractured shoulder in his first training session with the team.

Merino, who arrived from Real Sociedad in a £32 million deal earlier this week, was injured in a collision with centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes at Arsenal’s training base.

The 28-year-old is now set for a potentially lengthy spell on the sidelines at the start of his Arsenal career.

It represents a significant blow for the Spain international and for Arsenal, who had made Merino their top midfield target this summer and worked for months to secure his signature.

“It was very unfortunate,” said Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta on Friday. “Yesterday he had a collision and he has a shoulder injury, unfortunately. It looks like he is going to be out for a few weeks. [It was his] first session.

“He was really excited and everything was looking really good. He landed on the floor and Gabi landed on top of him and it looks like he has a small fracture probably.”

Merino had attempted to continue the training session after suffering the injury but Arsenal’s coaches soon noticed that he was in a significant amount of pain.

‌“He had the incident and he carried on playing, and training,” said Arteta. “And at some point we were looking at him and thought he did not look right. That shows you how much he wanted it and he did not want to accept that was happening in that moment.

‌“Now let’s use the time that we have, right now, to make sure he is familiar with everything that we are doing, how we live and what we expect of him, about our team dynamics. He will be in every team meeting as well. We will use the time in the best possible way.

‌“It is very disappointing because you can feel the pain of the player as well. We fought so hard for three months to get the player over the line. The club made a huge effort to bring him in and on day one for that to happen, it’s a huge blow.

‌“But his reaction has been exceptional straight away. We signed him for many years, not for a few weeks and we need to move on. These things can happen, it is very unfortunate but this is our reality.”

Asked to expand on how long Merino will be out for, Arteta replied: “We have to see. He was in so much pain. We’ll have to do some more tests on that and then we’ll have more conclusive answers.”

Merino arrived at Arsenal with a near-impeccable injury record during his six seasons at Real Sociedad, making at least 40 appearances in all competitions over the last three years.

For Arsenal, it also provides an unfortunate reminder of the injury suffered by Jurrien Timber at the same stage of last season.

Timber suffered a serious knee injury in August last year, in his first league game for the club after signing for around £40 million from Ajax, and did not play again until the final game of the campaign.

Arsenal will also be without Gabriel Jesus for Saturday’s match against Brighton but the Brazilian is not expected to be out for much longer with the minor muscle injury he picked up last week.