Will we ever see Takehiro Tomiyasu in an Arsenal shirt again?

Takehiro Tomiyasu once epitomised Arsenal's progress under Mikel Arteta.

The Gunners' defence once masqueraded like a Looney Tunes sequence. Incompetence prevailed, with those involved never too far away from producing the next viral clip on social media.

Mikel Arteta secured the FA Cup in his debut season with a few of these characters, but it became clear that a drastic shift within the foundations of what were essentially Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery's Arsenal teams had to be altered for the Spaniard to oversee his desired project.

Gabriel Magalhaes was the first stepping stone before Arteta's next defensive pillar arrived the following summer (a month after Ben White). Tottenham courted Tomiyasu before Arsenal swooped towards the end of the window, with the Japanese international signing from Bologna in a deal worth less than £20m.

He became an instant hit in north London; offering newfound sturdiness, reliability, and consistency. Tomiyasu was everything Arteta wanted from a defender at that stage of his project, but the aforementioned traits have since been compromised by his inability to stay fit.

Arsenal mulling over potential Takehiro Tomiyasu knee surgery

Since suffering his first injury setback with the club, a calf issue sustained towards his debut campaign, Tomiyasu has missed 81 games for Arsenal and Japan in less than four seasons.

Year two concluded with knee surgery, and his calf bothered him again on multiple occasions last term. In 2024/25, we've barely seen Tomiyasu in action. He briefly returned from a long-standing knee complaint against Southampton in October and hasn't been seen since. Are we even sure he wasn't a figment of our imaginations in the first place?

Tomiyasu's pesky knee has prevented him from offering his services this season, and reports are now emerging - I'm glad it took us this long to decide - that surgery may be required to fix an issue which clearly isn't going away.

The Daily Mail's Sami Mokbel writes that Arsenal's medical team are now considering sending Tomiyasu for his second knee operation since he joined the club.

Of course, any sort of surgery will see the defender miss an extensive period - likely the rest of the season - and there are no guarantees over his future. With Myles Lewis-Skelly emerging as a legitmate star at left-back, Tomiyasu has fallen a place in the depth chart. His availability woes may tempt Arsenal into selling this summer, although Kieran Tierney (who's returning to Celtic), and Oleksandr Zinchenko will be pushed out first.

The Gunners are well stocked at full-back, but a mountain of the injuries at the position have forced the likes of Thomas Partey and midfielder-by-trade Lewis-Skelly into the roles. While knee surgery has to be considered the best option to solve a long-standing issue, many will question whether Arsenal's project has moved beyond Tomiyasu: a man once synonymous with their defensive progress.

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