Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino has spoken in striking detail about the terrifying 2017 bus attack on Borussia Dortmund's team coach, revealing that a spontaneous decision to change seats may have spared him from serious injury or worse.

Merino, then just 20 and playing for Dortmund, was travelling with his teammates ahead of a Champions League quarter-final clash with Monaco when three explosive devices packed with metal pins detonated near the hedge-lined road the bus was travelling along. The blasts caused chaos on board, injuring defender Marc Bartra, who required surgery after suffering a badly damaged wrist, and a police officer who was also hurt in the incident.

Speaking to The Players' Tribune, Merino explained that he normally sat beside Bartra on the coach, but had opted for a different seat that day purely because his legs felt stiff and the seats at the front of the bus reclined further. It was later discovered that a large fragment of shrapnel had become embedded in the headrest of his usual seat — the one next to Bartra.