To add to what bootinelli said, Merino is desperate to get back to playing ASAP. The other day Arteta said that Merino is constantly pestering all the fitness staff on when he can play again. And it sounds like he's back in some form of training again.
Kindly forgive me, brothers and sisters, because I am extremely tired after the hurricane delayed our flights and made everything hell. This is the most far-out conspiracy theory I think I've ever had.
I had the thought earlier today that if Pep knew that Rodri had done his ACL (or even that he was on the absolute right side of the red zone), what if his instruction to Rodri was "just go out there and get 'fouled' and we'll hopefully get a foul or two from it".