Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino has said a last-minute change of seats on the team coach may have saved his life while he was at Borussia Dortmund.
The Spaniard was 20 years old when Dortmund’s bus was hit by explosives on its way to the home leg of their Champions League semi-final against Monaco in 2017.
Three bombs that had been filled with metal pins and hidden in a hedge, exploded as the bus passed.
A huge piece of shrapnel ended up lodged in the headrest of the seat Merino usually occupied but he had opted to sit elsewhere because his “legs were feeling a bit tight”.
“The seats in the front reclined so I sat up there instead, and it may have saved my life,” said the Premier League and World Cup winner in an interview with The Players’ Tribune., external
“I think I have an angel on my shoulder. I’m actually fortunate to be alive at all.
“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.”
Merino recalls seeing blood on the floor, the smell of smoke and the sound of screams, and he went to the hospital afterwards to wait for his team-mate Marc Bartra, who had an operation on a broken wrist.
The match against Monaco was postponed until the following day, which was criticised by Dortmund’s manager, current England boss Thomas Tuchel.
Sergei Wenergold, a German of Russian origin, was sent to prison in 2018 after he admitted to the attack.
Merino’s comments featured in a wider interview which detailed his remarkable comeback from a stress fracture in his right foot in February to lifting the World Cup with Spain five months later.
“The doctor said, ‘six months’,” said Merino, referring to the length of time he was expected to be out.
“I was too shocked to even feel sad. I just did the math in my head. The World Cup was four months away.
“When I told my wife, Lola, that’s when I broke down. My brain already understood, but my heart needed me to say it out loud.”
Merino added that “when the fog had cleared a little” he used his near escape on the Dortmund bus to spur him on because “things happen for a reason”.
He had played in the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup but was not selected for the final squad. He did not want to contemplate missing out again.
“I have to play. I will be at the World Cup, no matter what,” said Merino.
“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.”
Merino watched his Arsenal team-mates secure a first Premier League title in 22 years and celebrated with them, but his focus was on their final game of the season at Crystal Palace on 24 May, with Spain boss Luis de la Fuente naming the World Cup squad the following day.
“Zero minutes in four months. How do you call up a player like that?” Merino reasoned.
“I spent all week arguing with the [Arsenal] boss [Mikel Arteta] and the physios. The plan was for me to return for the Champions League final [against Paris St-Germain on 30 May], and even that was risky. But I had to show Luis that I was ready. Finally, they agreed to give me half an hour against Palace.
“That day, I was playing for the World Cup, 100%. And after that, I thought I had a good chance.
“The next day, I turned on Spanish TV. I was sitting on the sofa going, please, please please.
“At some point, the screen showed a woman in a vineyard… Mikel Merino!”
“I hugged Lola. I kissed [my son] Marco. My phone blew up with messages.
“I was going to the World Cup.”