Arsenal injury news: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain reveals he has been playing through the pain barrier for the last two years

Oxlade-Chamberlain is hoping his injury issues are a thing of the past after struggling to pull himself out of bed

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been playing through the pain barrier for the past two years (Getty Images)

Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has revealed that he has spent the past two years playing through severe pain that dates back to a knee ligament injury sustained at the start of the 2013/14 season.

Oxlade-Chamberlain has admitted his hope for an injury-free campaign this term after suffering a string of setbacks in recent years, the most severe of which had a major impact on his participation at the 2014 World Cup.

The 22-year-old is currently training with the England squad ahead of their important 2016 European Championship qualifiers against San Marino and Switzerland over the next five days, but he has revealed that he has been playing through the pain barrier for the last two years.

After explaining that his troubles had, at times, resulted in him struggling to lift himself out of his own bed, Oxlade-Chamberlain admitted that his struggles have been a “chain reaction” that stems back to the injury suffered on the first day of the 2013/14 campaign left him on the sidelines for nearly half a year with a serious knee injury.

Oxlade-Chamberlain's injury troubles arose from a knee ligament issue in 2013 (Getty Images)

“It’s all been a chain reaction from that injury against Villa, just being out for five or six months for the first time in your life,” said Oxlade-Chamberlain.

"I’ve never been out, not playing and not running around for that long — [with] your knee in a brace, your balance can shift, start loading more one side than the other, and that’s when the muscle problems keep creeping in.

"Until then, I would come to training half an hour before we started, sit on my phone, have a laugh with the lads, throw my boots on and smash balls around!

Oxlade-Chamberlain suffered another setback in a World Cup warm-up (Getty Images)

"After I did my knee, I would get in an hour early [and] do a full hour preparation to go and train. That was something new. Then it ended up in my groins from the compensation.

"I struggled with that for a large part of last season. There were times when I tried to get up from the bed, or from sitting on the sofa and I was in so much pain

"But then I would [be able to] play 90 minutes, and I couldn’t get round it in my head that I was struggling with the simplest of tasks but was still playing games."

Having opened his account with the winning goal in the Community Shield success over Chelsea, Oxlade-Chamberlain helped Arsenal to victory over Newcastle last weekend, although his effort was eventually turned into the Magpies’ net by defender Fabricio Coloccini for an own goal.

However, Arsenal have struggled for form so far this season and find themselves five points behind early leaders Manchester City. Oxlade-Chamberlain though is hoping that his strong start to the season is a sign of good things to come, and while he doesn’t want to count his chickens too early, he believes physically he is in a good position to remain fit.

“These things going on isn’t nice. It’s something I’ve not had going on for a while, since my knee injury, and you feel you can’t focus on playing football and playing on the pitch.

“That injury did change my body slightly. It changed the way my muscles and body reacted to playing as many games as we play.

“It’s been a while since I felt like that. I don’t want to speak too soon but at the moment I feel good, which is the main thing.”

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