Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen ankle injury to keep him out at least one month

It looks as if the Per Mertesacker signing is going to come in handy a little more quickly than most Arsenal supporters would have imagined, as today the club confirmed that defender/T-800 Thomas Vermaelen has had surgery on his left ankle to remove an inflamed plantaris tendon. The club were quick to point out that this was not the same problem that kept him out for most of last season:

This is the same treatment that he had on his right ankle in January this year and has nothing to do with his Achilles tendon.

Two  three four things:

1. The fact that one can simply remove a tendon that's causing problems will never cease to amaze me. One doesn't need that? I feel like if someone were to remove my plantaris tendon, I'd fall over, never be able to walk again, and whimper a lot because part of me felt incomplete.
2. Although the rash of injuries that Arsenal are currently suffering paint a big target on the backs of the medical staff, they are perhaps too convenient a scapegoat right now. This is Vermaelen's other ankle, and he injured it against Udinese. A lot of freak things are happening which may or may not have something to do with Arsenal's level of training and player usage, but without a full investigation, it's too easy to simply say our physios are crap, as disturbing as the past three years have been.
3. Shouldn't Vermaelen's self-diagnostic subroutines have caught this and fixed it beforehand? Someone call Cyberdyne.
4. Dammit.