Havertz eager to make up for lost time for Arsenal against familiar foe

German expected to start against his former club

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleKai Havertz has said the knee injury that forced him to miss the first half of the season was the most painful experience of his life but that it has given him “new hunger” to win trophies with Arsenal.

The Germany forward missed more than 20 games after having surgery on the injury he picked up on the opening day of the season in the victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Havertz, who will face his former club Bayer Leverkusen for the first time since leaving for Chelsea in 2020 in the first leg of the Champions League last-16 tie on Wednesday, was also absent for a significant portion of last season because of a hamstring problem.

The 26-year-old’s return has been managed carefully by Mikel Arteta in recent weeks but Havertz is confident that his fitness difficulties are behind him after a testing 12 months. “For me it was just tough because I never felt that pain before in my life and it just came randomly,” he said.

“Obviously having two surgeries is not easy, but I think I’m professional enough to know that’s also part of football sometimes and I know that there are so many players out there that went through stages of their career also. I’m still young so a lot of years hopefully in front of me, but obviously mentally it was tough.

“I’m confident, I’m feeling good, I’m feeling better, obviously things can always happen, but I’m feeling 100% ready to play games, I’m feeling fit and I can’t wait to help the team in the next couple of months.”

Asked whether being a frustrated spectator for so long had given him even more desire to succeed, Havertz said: “100%, I think. That feeling that you have after games, being with the boys in the training room, I miss it so much. That’s why also it was mentally so hard for me because they wouldn’t be there and I think it just gave me new hunger.”

With Martin Ødegaard, the captain, not available for the first leg, Havertz – who scored the winning goal for Chelsea in the 2021 Champions League final before moving across London in 2023 – is expected to start behind Viktor Gyökeres in attack. He believes the Sweden striker has settled in well after a slow start.

“I don’t think us as players we understand the critics, I knew it from before and I felt it myself when I came to England first of all and then when I came to Arsenal,” he said.

“You always need some time to adapt, but I felt even though people who saw him were very critical in the first couple of months, I never saw it because he’s a player who helps the team in so many different aspects.”

Arsenal will face Leverkusen for the first time since the 2001-02 Champions League, when they were eliminated in the second group stage as the German side went on to reach the final, which they lost to Real Madrid. Arteta’s side are 19 games from winning an unprecedented quadruple, although the Arsenal manager insisted his only focus is on the next match.

“No, I don’t use that phrase, don’t talk about it,” he said. “I don’t know what they talk about when I’m not there. We all know the difficulty of every competition. It starts tomorrow. We are changing from competition to competition every three days. So far, we’ve done so well, and we need to continue to do that.”

Arsenal reached the semi-finals last year for only the third time before losing to the eventual winners, Paris Saint-Germain. Arteta recognised that they have another opportunity to show the progress his players have made.

“They certainly have more experience in the competition,” he said. “When I joined in, they had never played in this competition. That’s obviously something that is necessary, like in any other competition. They understand it better. Now we have to perform.”