Declan Rice has shown he has the mentality to stay positive following an injury, after he limped off against Crystal Palace. The Arsenal star hobbled off late on in Sunday’s 1-0 win over the Eagles due to a right leg injury.
Having already racked up 116 appearances for the Gunners since his £105million transfer from West Ham in 2023, Rice has a terrific injury record with his biggest spell on the sidelines coming during his time in east London.
It was in April 2021 when the England star missed six league games after suffering a lateral knee ligament injury whilst on international duty. Rice not only played every minute of West Ham’s league campaign prior to the injury, but even returned before the end of the season to start in their last three fixtures of the season.
While Rice’s current injury is not expected to be as severe as the one he endured whilst a Hammer, Mikel Arteta revealed the midfielder’s struggles began in the first half before attempting to play on.
Following the victory, the Gunners boss told Football London: “Well, the first one was Willy [William Saliba] that obviously had to be out after the first half, Declan as well was struggling from the first half with a knock that he took, and who was the other one? Ricky. As well. So yeah, let’s see how that will go.”
He added: “On Willy there are two things related to his substitution and with Declan I don’t really know because it was a knock. But I don’t know if it was the calf or the Achilles or what exactly it was.”
Gunners fans’ can rest easy knowing that while getting injured is not a situation Rice is familiar being in, his full focus will be on supporting his team-mates and working strenuously to make a swift return to the pitch, as per his comments when sitting on the sidelines at West Ham.
Speaking in 2021, Rice said: “I’m of course disappointed to have picked up this injury but I’m in good spirits, have started my rehab already and hope to be back on the pitch with the lads soon. While I’m not able to be out there, I’ll be giving everything I can to work towards that and supporting the team as we look to continue our very positive season.”
He’s already shown support towards the team since picking up the injury as he took to Instagram to post a photo of him celebrating following the final whistle with the caption: “+3 [points]against a tough opponent. Let’s keep building [brick emoji].”
His social media activities didn’t stop there as he later posted a graphic from the official Arsenal Instagram account, which displayed the club’s famous chant: “One-nil, to The Arsenal,” before writing: “Onto the next [loveheart emoji].”
Arsenal’s superb start to the season has seen them create a four-point lead at the top of the Premier League and are currently on a four-match winning run, keeping four clean sheets in the process.