It's been a tough season so far for Emile Smith Rowe. Last year the Hale Ender was Arsenal's second highest scorer behind Bukayo Saka, but this year, he has been unable to start a single match.
This has been largely down to a decision to have surgery on a groin problem. There was the option to carry on playing and risk the issue that had plagued Smith Rowe for back half of last season flaring up again, but after some consultation it was decided that the best route was to have surgery in order to try and solve the problem once and for all.
That ruled the 22-year-old out for four months, and just after making a brief comeback in matches against Oxford United and Tottenham Hotspur in January, he suffered a set back that led him to fail to make a matchday squad for another three weeks. He returned to the bench for February's dramatic 4-2 victory over Aston Villa, but by that point Leandro Trossard had arrived from Brighton and since then Fabio Vieira has started to earn more game time in both the Premier League and Europa League.
