Arsenal legend Ray Parlour has explained why he believes Bukayo Saka is one of the most professional players in the game. The 22-year-old recently picked up the England men's Player of the Year Award for the second consecutive year, just a week on from being crowned the PFA Young Player of the Year.
By his own standards, Saka has endured a relatively quiet start to the Premier League season with Arsenal, picking up two goals and one assist from four games. In the recent 3-1 victory against Manchester United, Diogo Dalot successfully nullified the threat of Saka, but he still made a telling contribution as it was his deep corner that was touched down and smashed home by Declan Rice in added time.
Following the victory, there were some concerns regarding a potential fresh injury for Saka and those were heightened by his omission from England training earlier in the week. However, it was revealed that decision was made in order to manage his load and a start on Saturday in the Euro 2024 against Ukraine is likely.
Despite playing nearly 4,000 minutes in all competitions last season, injuries have rarely affected Saka and one of the reasons for that may have been revealed. After picking up two prestigious awards in the last few weeks, Parlour was very complimentary of Saka and went on to tell a story about the 22-year-old from his recent visit to London Colney.
"He's a massive player for both Arsenal and England," Parlour said on talkSPORT. "He never gets injured and he is always fit to play. He's a real grounded young man who is always smiling. He’s been an absolute revelation. It’s the little things. I went to the training ground not so long ago and every single player had a day off. But he was in.
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"He just said 'I want to do a little bit more warm down and get my legs going'. He was on a bike, he didn’t have to be there. That’s the sort of professional he is to say 'I want to go in and look after myself' and that's why he plays every week.
"He's just a fine young man. I think every person likes him - even if you're a neutral and you don't even like Arsenal, I think most people take to people like Saka because he's always smiling and doing the best he can, whether it's for Arsenal or England, he always wants to put a performance in."
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