Mari feels 'lucky' to be alive after stabbing as ex-Inter ace disarmed attacker

The Arsenal defender, on loan at Serie A side Monza, has declared he is 'lucky' to be alive after being stabbed in the back in Italy on Thursday.

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Five people were been injured in the frenzied attack which occurred in a Carrefour supermarket on the outskirts of Milan, leaving one person dead.

Mari, who was Mikel Arteta's first signing at the Emirates, will undergo surgery on Friday following the incident which took place in the Milanofiori di Assago mall.

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Quoted by Gazzetta dello Sport, the 29-year-old said: "Today I was lucky, because I saw a person die in front of me.

"I was with the trolley with my child inside and I felt an excruciating pain in my back.

"Then that man stabbed another in the throat."

And according to the same news outlet, Mari's attacker was immobilised and disarmed by Napoli icon Tarantino.

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The 1990 Serie A champion, who now works in the youth set-up at Roma, stopped the knifeman from injuring anyone else before handing him over to the military.

Playing down his heroic act, Tarantino remarked: "He was just shouting, 'stop, stop'.

"I didn't do anything, I'm not a hero."

The 46-year-old man in question is believed to have a history of mental illness, with police ruling it out as terrorism.

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Mari, who joined Arsenal on an initial loan deal in January 2020 from Brazilian side Flamengo, has played in eight matches for Monza since arriving in the summer.

He was visited by Monza president Adriano Galliani in the hospital along with the club's manager Raffaele Palladino.

And Galliani has revealed that Mari had enough strength to joke that he would still be reporting for training on Monday.

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He said: "Pablo is an amazing guy. He had the strength to joke and tell me that he will be back in training on Monday.

"I brought him greetings from [club president Silvio] Berlusconi and everyone else. His teammates wanted to come here but obviously it was not possible."

Arsenal released a statement on Mari after their 2-0 defeat to PSV, 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.

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"Our thoughts are with Pablo and the other victims of this dreadful incident."