20 November 2023 , 12:26
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Former Arsenal defender Carl Jenkinson has opened up about his departure from the club, admitting he struggled to come to terms with the fact a serious ACL injury meant he was "never quite the same".
A lifelong Gunners fan, Jenkinson signed for Arsenal in 2011 having come through Charlton's academy. He made a total of 70 appearances at the Emirates, before leaving the club in 2019. He suffered an ACL injury while on loan at West Ham in 2016 and he was simply unable to get back to his best after that.
"It was difficult," he told the Athletic."I was so sad that it had come to an end. I needed a bit of time to get over the fact that I wasn’t a player anymore. It was hard to leave Arsenal in the end, and I never really wanted to.
"I know my dad would have loved for it to have gone on forever but it doesn't always work like that. I think I realised in myself that I wasn't at that level anymore to play for a club like Arsenal after I busted my knee. I hesitate to say that.
"I don't like the idea of blaming the fact that things didn't work out on an injury. But being honest, I was never quite the same after I did my ACL at West Ham. I came back and gave it my best shot to get back to the level, but I didn't quite have the same physical attributes as perhaps I had before."
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Jenkinson ended up signing for Nottingham Forest in 2019, but immediately suffered another setback when he picked up an ankle injury in just his third game for the club. The injury sidelined him for four months and gave Matty Cash the opportunity to replace him as Forest's first-choice right-back.
Even when Cash was sold to Aston Villa the following year, Jenkinson still struggled for game-time with Forest turning to loan signings Cyrus Christie and Djed Spence. In January 2022, the full-back had been relegated to training with Forest's Under-21s when the possibility of a move to Australia came about.
Jenkinson now plies his trade in Australia for the Newcastle Jets (Getty Images)Former Melbourne City manager Warren Joyce was working with Forest's academy and facilitated the move, with Jenkinson initially joining Melbourne on loan before signing a two-year deal with fellow Australian side Newcastle Jets in August. And the 31-year-old is loving life in Australia, explaining: "Technically it's a very good league.
"You get a lot of foreign players coming over here who've played at a high level. It's just the tempo is slower than back home, certainly in the higher leagues. But all the teams here try to play football. The lower you go down the English pyramid, the less that's the case.
"I think I just needed a little bit of time to become a fan again. It took a while but now I'm safely back in that bracket. And I love it: I follow the games like I always used to, and me and my dad got a season ticket back."