Bukayo Saka will likely be sidelined for “many weeks” after struggling a hamstring harm in Arsenal’s 5-1 win at Crystal Palace, with supervisor Mikel Arteta describing his loss as a “huge” blow.
Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka receives medical consideration after sustaining an harm.(REUTERS)
The England winger went down halfway by the primary half at Selhurst Park on Saturday and had to get replaced by Leandro Trossard.
“It is not looking good. He will be out for many weeks,” Arteta stated at a press convention on Monday, including he couldn’t be extra particular.
The Spaniard stated the lack of the 23-year-old, who has 9 targets and 13 assists in all competitions this season, would power him right into a rethink.
“Obviously he’s a big player for us,” he stated. “You just have to see the impact that he has on the team, but it’s going to be a really good exercise for all of us to think about ways to overcome another challenge, because we’ve already had a lot in the season.”
Arteta stated Saka was “gutted” and “really emotional” after discovering the extent of his harm.
He additionally revealed that fellow winger Raheem Sterling had injured his knee and could be out for plenty of weeks.
“We have to look internally at what we have and be creative,” stated the Gunners boss, including that he didn’t know if the membership would signal a winger within the January switch window.
Saka was filmed leaving Selhurst Park on crutches, souring what had been a complete second win over the Palace in 4 days.
Arteta, whose third-placed workforce face Premier League strugglers Ipswich on Friday, stated he was assured that Saka could be again effectively earlier than the tip of the season.
“It’s part of the development of a player,” he stated. “At some stage, at this level, you are going to get injured — unfortunately badly.
“It may have been worse, it may have been one thing else that may take you out for a 12 months. It is the way you react to that, the way you overcome that scenario.”
Arteta said he was “placing some concepts collectively” about how to cope in the winger’s absence.
“We went by the interval (this season with out) Martin (Odegaard), we went by the interval with 5, six defenders lacking, we went by the interval with out many different gamers,” he said.
“We’ll proceed to do this — discovering methods and taking it with optimistic vitality.”
Asked if the congested fixture schedule had played a part in Saka’s injury, Arteta said the issue was more to do with consistently high workloads over many seasons.
“For instance, Bukayo and Declan (Rice), they performed over 130 video games in two seasons,” he said. “So what is going on to occur in the second, the third one or the fourth one, if that continues the identical approach? In all probability it is unsustainable.”