Interview

'We need to give confidence to Koscielny now'

Laurent Koscielny

These have probably been the toughest five months of Laurent Koscielny’s career.

The defender has not featured since an Achilles injury during last season’s Europa League semi-final against Atletico Madrid ended his campaign, and forced him to sit out France’s World Cup triumph in Russia.

 

It has been a dark period for our captain but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Koscielny recently stepped up his rehabilitation by joining in with our outside training sessions, and Unai Emery says we can all help the 33-year-old by remaining patient as he makes his return to match action.

 

“He is very important for us because he is our captain,” he said. “He is starting this week to do some training with us together and it is very, very good news for us.

 

“I think we need also to give confidence to him, to be close with us, because it was a big injury. But now he is getting better, he is training with us in some things and this is very positive.

 

”We need to be calm with him. Calm because we need after more than a month, [him to] feel first he is doing some things well, and then when he can play and do games in the training, we can think he is OK to play.”

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