Gabriel Jesus’ major injury concerns while at Arsenal came to fruition in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, when he suffered a knee injury while representing Brazil, causing him to miss up to five months of action for Arsenal subsequently. This was a major blow as Jesus was a vital cog in the Arsenal attacking machine, cementing his place as the alpha dog in the club’s forward line following the high-profile departures of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Jesus didn’t start the new campaign any better, as he had to go under the knife again for a minor procedure for a niggling knee issue that saw him miss the early part of the season, even though Arsenal managed to cover his absence with Eddie Nketiah, Leandro Trossard and new signing, Kai Havertz, featuring in the center forward position.
When he returned to action, Gabriel Jesus showed blistering form in the Champions League, scoring four goals in five Group Stage matches, even though his performances in the Premier League left a lot to be desired. However, during the Sevilla game in October 2023, Jesus suffered yet another hamstring injury, and remained sidelined for a considerable chunk of time.
His return to footballing action in the business end of the season has been highly anticipated and welcome, but he has failed to nail down a starting berth, partly due to the inspired form of Havertz as the de-facto forward, and due to the club managing his minutes till he’s fully fit. Jesus came off the bench in Arsenal’s Champions League quarterfinals against Bayern Munich, creating a neat assist for Trossard and exerting his influence on the game as the Gunners ended the match in a stalemate with the Bavarian giants.
In an interview with TNT Sports Brazil, Jesus has dropped hints that he may forgo his potential appearance for Brazil in the Copa America to go under the knife to mitigate his niggling knee injury. Jesus also confirmed that period that he can’t remember the last time he played football without pain, and that’s not good for his long term health.
His playing time dwindled as Havertz was in a rich vein of form, causing him to feature in the wings, and he still notched up a couple of assists, and the campaign ended without Jesus having any surgery, but still missed out on Copa America entirely. This enabled Jesus to commence preseason on time, scoring in the closed door friendly against Leyton Orient and most recently, the 2-1 win over Manchester United.
Jesus has confirmed that he’s in a better place physically and mentally,
“My last pre-season was not good because I was feeling my knee, so I had to have surgery and missed all of the pre-season. So, I was trying to force it during that pre-season, but at the end I couldn’t and had surgery.
“That was a little bit difficult after to come back, but this season is different. I could enjoy my holidays and then I trained a lot, and I was focused to come back well and do a good pre-season. Now I’m in different shape and can play football again.”
When Gabriel Jesus arrived at Arsenal, he was on pure fire and played so well, but injuries have always derailed his progress. With Havertz doing so well as the center forward and continuing in that role for Germany, Jesus will have his work cut out to gain his place ahead of Havertz, and he will need step up his game and score goals, because strikers are judged on goals. Eight goals in 35 games wasn’t good enough.
Sayonara.
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