Saka reveals how injury layoff helped him mentally

Arsenal star Bukayo Saka has revealed how his lengthy injury layoff was able to help him mentally, Afrosport reports.

The 23-year-old England winger of Nigerian heritage had been out of action for three months due to an thigh injury which saw him miss 19 competitive games.

Saka however returned to action in a 2-1 Premier League win over London rivals Fulham, coming off he bench to score the decisive goal.

He will now set his sights on featuring in Tuesday’s crunch Champions League quarter-final clash with holders Real Madrid at the Emirates Stadium.

“I think mentally it was really good for me. Obviously it was really tough for me initially to find out the extent of my injury, that I was going to have surgery, it was really tough for me to hear the news at first but once it was done and successful I was just focused on coming back stronger and I had a lot of time,” Saka said ahead of the game.

“The past five years I’ve been playing game after game so it was the first proper break I’ve had. It was really good for me. I got to do a lot of things that I don’t normally do. It’s really nice to be back and I feel fresh mentally.”

He added: “I feel good, obviously you can’t defy nature, you need to get on the pitch, get your minutes up but I’m feeling good and the last two games I feel like I’ve gone from strength to strength.”

Saka also hopes Arsenal can take a bold step and reach the Champions League semi-finals.

“It would mean a lot to us. It’s the first time the club has been in back-to-back Champions League quarter finals for a while now so tomorrow night we want to take the next step and try and get over the line,” he stated.

“It’s Madrid, you have to respect that and accept what they’ve done in the history but tomorrow anything can happen, we can’t focus too much on that.”