It’s been so hard missing final joy and the World Cup
A year ago he got injured, so Walcott wants repeat of Arsenal Cup glory
IT IS a year to the day that Theo Walcott fell to the floor, screaming and clutching his left knee in what seemed a fairly innocuous challenge on Danny Rose.
It is at the same stage of the FA Cup that Arsenal face Hull this afternoon — the third round — that he cruelly ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in that match against Tottenham.
It would painfully cost him a place in Arsenal’s side which won the tournament that year, after beating Spurs 2-0 to progress, and England’s World Cup squad.
Initially the prognosis was that he would be out for six months. It has been a year and Walcott has managed just three substitute appearances, constituting a total of 51 minutes of football. Thirty of those came against Southampton on New Year’s Day.
‘It has gone very quickly,’ Walcott said. ‘There have been loads of things in my life that have changed completely. Things happen for a reason.
‘I have had the opportunity to work on different parts of my game which I missed out on when I was younger. The actual development stage of it. I am really looking forward to it if I am given the opportunity.
‘It is the chance to go out there and get a few more minutes. I am not going to be expecting too much from myself early on. It is nice to blow cobwebs away to be honest and be out there playing with your mates again. I have missed that obviously.’
The 25-year-old also missed attending the FA Cup final at Wembley — when Arsenal came from two goals behind to beat Hull and win their first trophy in nine years — due to ‘a personal thing.’ But he did catch it on television and struggled not being a part of the club’s history with his team-mates.
‘I wasn’t at the final,’ he explained, ‘I had a personal thing in my life that happened and I couldn’t attend. I was able to watch it on television and it was tough to take. But it was a special moment for everyone. It had been so long and hopefully that was the push start to everything and to build on from that. It has been a stop-and-start season at times and with the FA Cup — being the holders — you want to keep hold of that.
‘It is important to get a good start, especially against Hull. We will have home support and we have to bounce back from a disappointing result at Southampton.’
Walcott was playing some of the best football of his career for club and country before the injury. So confident was the player that he goaded Spurs fans who had pelted him with coins as he was carried off on a stretcher, by using his fingers to indicate that his side were two-nil ahead.
The winger looked in little pain at the time, but that was the last football he played for 10 months. When he returned in November with two substitute appearances against Burnley and Swansea, he looked set to make his first start soon. But manager Arsene Wenger released him for international duty for the Euro 2016 qualifier against Slovenia and friendly with Scotland and he came back with a groin problem after putting in some extra shooting and crossing practice during training.
Arsenal have looked light in attack in recent weeks and badly need Walcott back. They have lost Lukas Podolski to Inter Milan on loan and Olivier Giroud picked up a threematch ban for head-butting Nedum Onuoha when they played Queens Park Rangers on Boxing Day. The Frenchman completes the last game of his suspension against Hull.
Danny Welbeck, Yaya Sanogo, Aaron Ramsey, Mikel Arteta, Jack Wilshere and Mesut Ozil are all struggling with injuries, slashing Wenger’s options going forward.
That presents an even greater challenge to progress in their cup tie with Hull, but Walcott is intent on improving Arsenal’s rich history in the competition after they went level with Manchester United — with 11 wins — when they were victorious last season.
‘We want to continue that,’ Walcott said. ‘History is important and we want to become those legends as well. We need to knuckle down and start performing
‘You see a lot of clubs put out weakened teams. But for me, it is a game you want to win. The fans always love a good cup run and going to different stadiums.
‘I enjoy going to a League One side, for instance. It is things like that which they don’t usually get the opportunity to do very often. There is something special about the FA Cup.’