Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino has revealed he is "fortunate to be alive" after narrowly escaping a life-threatening ordeal during his stint at Borussia Dortmund.
Merino was with Dortmund in April 2017 when their team bus was targeted with explosives ahead of a UEFA Champions League quarter-final clash against AS Monaco. The squad were en route to Signal Iduna Park when three pipe bombs detonated and shattered the windows of their vehicle.
While there were no fatalities, defender Marc Bartra was among two individuals injured in the attack. He was rushed to hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with a fractured and severely lacerated wrist, as per The Mirror .
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Merino has now disclosed that he could have lost his life in the bombing, as he had been scheduled to sit beside Bartra on the coach. Speaking to The Players' Tribune , Merino said: "I think I have an angel on my shoulder. I'm actually fortunate to be alive at all.
"I was 20 and playing for Dortmund when three pipe bombs went off right next to our bus on the way to a Champions League match. A lot of young people probably would not even believe that it happened, or how bad it was, but it marked us all.
"There was a deafening noise, and then I remember the bus nearly tipping over. I looked behind me and saw blood on the floor. Smoke, screams. I remember being at the hospital later that night, waiting for Marc Bartra, who had his wrist badly cut up.
"The next day, someone told me that a huge piece of shrapnel was lodged in the headrest of the seat next to Marc. My usual seat. That day, the seat was empty.
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"My legs were feeling a bit tight, and the seats in the front reclined. So I sat up there instead, and it may have saved my life. So yeah, I just have this belief that things happen for a reason."
Merino revealed that the incident nine years ago helped him navigate his injury layoff at Arsenal last season. The 30-year-old fractured his foot last January and ultimately required two screws to be inserted into his left foot.
He said: "The specialist who did the scan had never seen a stress fracture in that part of the foot. He'd been doing this for 30 years. He had called five of the best specialists in the world, and none of them had seen it either.
"Nobody knew how my foot would recover, or if it would recover at all. Part of me feared that I would never play football again. I put all the meat on the barbecue, as we say in Spain. They told me they could drill two screws into my foot to give it support. I was like, vamos, put 'em in."
