Would the operation be successful? he wondered. What did the next few months hold? Would he ever get back to his best?
Saka takes part in a training session at St George’s Park on Monday (Photo: PA)
Until Saka tore his hamstring against Crystal Palace three days before Christmas it had been, bar niggling injuries, a straight run of progressing and competing since he made his debut in front of 7,751 travelling supporters on a freezing evening in Kyiv against Vorskla Poltava, a few weeks past his 17th birthday.
“You are on crutches, in hospital and need help around the house for the first few weeks.
Such is Saka’s mentality, things moved fast after a scan revealed the extent of the injury.
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The operation was scheduled for 5am on Christmas Eve, so he would have enough time to be monitored by the doctors after surgery and discharged from hospital before Christmas Day, ensuring not a second was wasted.
That is when the uncertainty crept in. Players in the past have failed to reach the same heights after major surgery. Would that be the case with him?
Saka enjoys reading and found a book that particularly resonated: The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle’s guide to spiritual enlightenment, mindfulness and presence. It was recommended to him by Carlos Cuesta, a coach at Arsenal.
“Sometimes I can think, ‘Oh, am I going to come back in the best shape?’ Or, in the past, ‘What could I have done to prevent injury?’
“I feel I’ve come back in the good place.”
He had no time to ease back in, thrust into Champions League quarter-finals and semi-finals – massive games against Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain (he scored against both of them).
“I had to do my best, the team did their best and we fell short,” he said. “It is what it is but there is no point looking back now, we look forward and know what we have to do next year.”
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Did it hurt to see Arsenal’s bitterest rivals lift a trophy, when Arsenal have come so close in the last three seasons but are yet to get over the line?
Did he watch it? “Yes. It’s the way it was, isn’t it?”
But Tuchel was being cautious. Saka is set to start – expecting to be playing off the right – in the friendly against Senegal in Nottingham on Tuesday.
If the past and present are anything to go by, Saka could be the match to ignite England’s future.
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