Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny suffered a heartbreaking injury towards the tail end of the 17/18 season when he ruptured his Achilles during the Gunners’ Europa League semi-final second leg defeat to Atletico Madrid.

The 32-year-old had to undergo surgery to fix the issue, meaning that he would miss the World Cup with France and remain unlikely to return to action until the end of the year.

“You will not see him until December at best. Koscielny is devastated. People have always inflamed tendons but they don’t rupture but in his case it went. I don’t know why. The recovery will be full because the advantage of surgery is that it heals the inflammation.” Said former Arsenal Manager, Arsene Wenger, after the game which Koscielny was injured after just 12 minutes.

It was a devastating blow to both Arsenal and indeed France, but things have started to look on the up this week after the defender posted a video of him walking without crutches, with the caption: “It’s good to walk again.”

Koscielny has already insisted in the past that it is early days of his recovery, and that his rehabilitation routine includes a lot of rest.

“My programme? Television, crosswords and Nintendo,” he said. “I am now wearing a boot, which allows me to walk on crutches. In three months I hope to resume light jogging. In five months I could certainly retouch the ball.”

There is still a long way to go before we see the big man back playing for the Gunners again, but these are certainly encouraging signs for the defender, who we hope will be back to his best sooner rather than later.