Timber takes positives from Arsenal injury woe

Arsenal defender Jurrien Timber is determined to take the positives out of his injury-wrecked debut campaign for the Gunners.

The 23-year-old Netherlands international was one of the stars of last pre-season for Arsenal, when he looked to have been earmarked for the inverted right-back role by manager Mikel Arteta.

But those hopes collapsed when Timber ruptured his cruciate ligaments in the opening Premier League game of the season.

Timber did not return until the final match against Everton, when he came on for the last 21 minutes.

The £34m signing from Ajax did have some low moments, but he is refusing to dwell on them as he approaches his second campaign as an Arsenal player.

"It was a big blow, and at the start it was huge," said Timber, speaking at the start of the Gunners' three-game pre-season tour of the United States.

"It's never fun to be injured but I tried to look at it in a positive way. Time goes quickly. I worked with some fantastic physios and have good people around me who made me feel great and in the end I came out well."

Rather than beat himself up by the thought he was stuck in the gym doing recovery work while his team-mates were trying to wrestle the Premier League title away from Manchester City, Timber used it as motivation.

"It's not that hard when you see how they were performing last year," he said. "It gets you motivated to join them and to help them."

Arsenal play Bournemouth at LA Galaxy's 27,000-capacity stadium at 03:30 BST on Thursday.