In a shocking incident, Arsenal defender Pablo Mari was hospitalised in Milan after being stabbed along with four others on October 28. The 29-year-old is currently on loan at Serie A side Monza, and according to Gazzetta dello Sport became a victim of a random attack carried out by ‘made man’. The player was further reported to be accompanied by his wife and son, who are safe and sound and have not sustained any injuries.
However, amongst the four other shoppers who were attacked, one suffered fatal injuries and has passed away while two others are in “serious condition”. But Mari has not sustained any serious harm and no vital organs have suffered any injury as confirmed by his agent Arturo Canales to BBC. The news broke out to Arsenal mid-way through their Europa League game against PSV in Holland.
Arsenal, Monza issue statements on Pablo Mari
The incident took place in a local shopping centre at 10:00 PM [IST]. Many witnesses have described the events as they revealed a mad man with unstable mental health picked a knife from the store and started attacking random people, among whom was Pablo Mari. People tried to flee the place in panic, while some fought back to take down the attacker. Monza CEO Adriano Galliani confirmed to the media that their player is stable and is slated to make a full recovery, as he told Sky Italia:
“Pablo Mari is not in danger as his injuries are not life-threatening. We hope to see him back soon. He had his son in a trolley and his wife next to him. He didn’t notice anything. He then felt something painful in his back, which was the criminal’s knife. Unfortunately, he also saw the criminal stab someone in the throat. He saw everything that happened and it was deeply disturbing.”
Arsenal, who were playing their Europa League Group A game against PSV away got to know about their on loan player mid-way through the game as Mikel Arteta then gave his reaction in the post-match presser. The Gunners’ manager said after their 2-0 defeat:
“I just found out [about Mari]. I know Edu [Arsenal technical director] has been in touch with his relatives. He’s in hospital but he seems to be okay.”
Arsenal too released a statement which read:
“We are all shocked to hear the dreadful news about the stabbing in Italy, which has put a number of people in hospital including our on-loan centre-back Pablo Mari. We have been in contact with Pablo’s agent who has told us he’s in hospital and is not seriously hurt. Our thoughts are with Pablo and the other victims of this dreadful incident.”
Pablo Mari was signed by the Gunners from Flamengo in 2020 for a fee of £5.4 million. However, he only managed to make 22 appearances for the Gunners before being loaned out to Udinese in January earlier this year. He returned to Arsenal this summer, but embarked on another loan spell again to Italy with Monza, who have an option to make the deal permanent next summer. Mari has so far played 8 games for the Italian club this season, all of them in Serie A. He was already sidelined with a back injury, and now his recovery will determine his return to action, which is not expected before the turn of the year.