Takehiro Tomiyasu has endured a wretched 12 months, missing almost the entirety of Arsenal’s 2024/25 season through injury.
The defender featured just once last season, managing a seven-minute cameo at home to Southampton back in October.
Suffering from persistent fitness issues, Tomiyasu underwent surgery on his knee back in February.
Arsenal were reportedly considering selling Tomiyasu in January, but were unable to after his latest injury problem surfaced.
Still in rehabilitation, sanctioning the Japan international’s departure this summer will be nearly impossible, and thus, he is expected to play a role under Mikel Arteta next season.
Takehiro Tomiyasu not expected to play for Arsenal until the end of 2025
Signed for £17 million from Bologna back in the summer of 2021, Tomiyasu enjoyed an excellent debut campaign at Arsenal.
Generally producing consistently impressive displays for the Gunners, the versatile defender’s issue has been staying fit.
Not managing more than ten starts in the Premier League in each of his last three seasons in N5, he has been relegated down the pecking order at the Emirates, and it’s difficult to see a way back for him.
Rubbing salt into the wounds, Tomiyasu may not return to action until November.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, journalist Charles Watts gave the right-back ‘absolutely no chance’ of featuring in pre-season, issuing his return date as some point before the end of 2025.
“The hope is that he’ll be back at the end of the year, so around November time,” Watts said.
“But this is a really difficult injury that he’s coming back from. I don’t think anyone’s going to put a firm timeline on it. He’s certainly not going to be back for pre-season, or the last I heard there was absolutely no chance he was going to be back for the start of pre-season or the start of the season.
“It’s very much working towards the end of the year. I just don’t really know if you can factor Tomiyasu into next season, at all.”
Takehiro Tomiyasu being fit would allow Arsenal to sell Jakub Kiwior
If he can get fit, Tomiyasu would be an extremely useful player for Arteta to have in his squad.
Jakub Kiwior is wanted by Italian clubs, but the Gunners would have to source a replacement for the Pole if he were to depart.
That said, Tomiyasu returning to fitness and being a regular contributor again would enable the North London club to cash in on Kiwior without having to reinvest that money into a successor.
William Saliba, Ben White and Jurrien Timber can cover the right-hand side of Arsenal’s defence, while Gabriel Magalhaes, Riccardo Calafiori and Myles Lewis-Skelly are able to cover the left.
This would leave Tomiyasu as the seventh defender who can play on either side, in any of the four roles, when needed.
This is an extremely valuable player to have in your squad, but unfortunately for Arsenal, he simply cannot remain available.
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