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Mikel Arteta has given a detailed injury update on his Arsenal squad ahead of the Premier League encounter against Liverpool on Sunday.
The Gunners have suffered from a spate of injuries in the early weeks of the season, with up to seven players possibly set to miss the trip to Anfield. Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard sustained injuries in last week’s win over Leeds United and their fitness has dominated the week leading up to the Liverpool clash.
Arteta confirmed that Saka will not be available this weekend, but fears that he is set for a prolonged period on the sidelines have been eased. The winger sustained a hamstring injury last week, and a similar issue last season required surgery and forced him to miss over three months of the campaign.
“Bukayo is doing better, but he will be out for a few weeks, unfortunately,” said Arteta. “No surgery. It is not as bad as the previous one [injury].
“Obviously, he is very unfortunate to pick it up; it is on the other side. It is an action that requires full power from him, then he clashes with the opponent, he needs to change pace again and he felt something. So, he will be out for a couple of weeks.
“Let’s see how he evolves in the next few days and weeks, repeat the scan and see where he is at [after the international break].”
While Saka has been ruled out, Odegaard remains a doubt. The midfielder was called up to the Norway squad for the upcoming international fixtures, and Arteta said he could be available to face Liverpool.
“We don’t know yet. He hasn’t trained yet and, if he does, it will be tomorrow. Let’s see.
“He is doing everything he can, we are doing everything that we can to make himself available - but we will have to wait and see tomorrow.
“There is an injury there, but hopefully if everything goes well, he can cope with it. But we don’t know yet.”
Arteta also revealed that Ben White, Christian Norgaard, and Leandro Trossard are doubts to face Liverpool, while Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz are struggling with more long-term issues.
On the latter, who underwent knee surgery this week, Arteta said: “I think it will be weeks, but I don’t know how many months. Very unfortunate, very sad for him.
“I think he did tremendously well to recover from the previous one [injury]. He has never had an injury before and sadly this happens.”
Meanwhile, Arne Slot confirmed on Friday that Conor Bradley has trained all week and Alexis Mac Allister has also recovered from the knock that kept him out against Newcastle United on Monday. It means Liverpool has no injury issues ahead of Sunday’s game.
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