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Feature
- 1 hours ago
Nico Williams to Arsenal transfer at risk over chronic injury
Carlo Garganese
- Updated: 6 May 2025 08:41 BST
- 5 min read
News
Nico Williams may need an operation this summer to solve a chronic injury, which could complicate a summer transfer to Arsenal.
Marca reports that the Athletic Bilbao winger has been dealing with a sports hernia this season, a chronic injury that has hampered his performances.
Current ETV
Nico Williams
M (L)
Athletic
Nico Williams
M (L)
Athletic
ETV Range
€64.1M - €78.4M
Williams and Athletic doctors will hold a meeting to discuss how to treat the problem.
The player could either follow a conservative treatment plan based on physiotherapy and rest, which would avoid surgery but risk not fully solving the issue.
Alternatively, Williams could indeed have a hernia operation in the summer which would rule him out for up to three months.
Williams to Arsenal
This injury complicates William's potential move to Arsenal, who will be wary of signing a player with this kind of problem hanging over him.
Williams is Arsenal's top target this summer to strengthen their wide areas.
Arsenal would be happy to trigger Williams' €58 million release clause in his Athletic contract if they table a bid but his high wage demands have made negotiations over personal terms tricky.
Barcelona also wish to sign Williams but their financial situation makes a deal difficult.
Arsenal and Barcelona were in a two-way tussle to sign Williams last summer but the player eventually stayed at Athletic Bilbao.
Barca had been particularly desperate to sign the Athletic winger last summer but were unable to complete a deal for the same financial reasons.
It has long since been claimed that Williams would ideally rather join Barca if that move is still on the table.
Chelsea and Liverpool have also been linked to the winger.
Williams at Euro 2024
Williams was one of the stars of Euro 2024 with electric performances as Spain won the trophy.
He scored in the 2-1 final win over England and was one of the players of the tournament.
His best performance was arguably against Italy where he tore apart the right-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo and set up the winner - an own goal by Riccardo Calafiori.
He also scored a fantastic goal in the win over Georgia in the last-16.
The 22-year-old Williams is considered one of the most exciting young wingers in all of Europe.
Blessed with lightning pace and dribbling skills, he has a promising future in the game.
After making his debut for Athletic in 2021, Williams has scored 31 goals in 164 games.
He has also scored five goals in 26 games for Spain, and travelled to the 2022 World Cup.
This season he has 11 goals in 44 games.
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