Bukayo Saka is a doubt for Arsenal’s clash with Burnley tomorrow.
The England international limped off towards the end of the 2-0 win over Sevilla in midweek, in which he scored and made an assist, and hasn’t trained since.
The question of whether it might impact his availability for England was raised, with Arteta responding, “We want our players to play for the club and play for the national teams and B had to leave the pitch because he was in quite a lot of pain.
“He didn’t train yesterday and let’s see if he can make it tomorrow.”
There remain doubts over Martin Odegaard and Eddie Nketiah who both missed the Champions League tie, with both players set to be assessed ahead of tomorrow’s game. There’s also a worry over Takehiro Tomiyasu who came off at half-time on Wednesday night.
“We need to give them 24 more hours to give them a chance to be involved in the game, but we won’t know anything until tomorrow,” said Arteta.
Arteta also confirmed the fact that Thomas Partey has had a procedure on the thigh injury that has kept him out since he returned from international duty last month.
Expanding on that situation, the Arsenal boss said, “He’s progressing really well but it was a significant injury and I said that hopefully it’s going to be weeks and not months.
“He’s working towards that and he needs support and hopefully the injury will heal in the right way and we’ll have him back because he’s a big player for us.”
As for the prospect of Partey getting fit, then departing for the AFCON which takes place in Ivory Coast in January, he said, “That’s part number two, let’s get him fit and healthy as quick as possible and play a big part in the team which I think that he can do.”
Doesn’t help us directly but so many teams also having a lot of injuries at the moment..
Ours seems a bit disproportionate in term of number of 1st team players out tho.
The winter World Cup is partly to blame. Players barely got a break.
Sex panther – lol
I can’t be alone in feeling a little bit concerned that things are catching up with our starboy now can I? He has played a lot of football and I do wonder if perhaps there’s an accumulation of little things which are bothering him. Then again it’s also fair to point out that he is on the receiving end of so many borderline assaults in every game that it must surely be a factor. He must be black and blue at the end of every single match, but it’s hard to know if he’s very susceptible to that kind of… Read more »
The situation with Saka illustrates a really bad aspect of Arteta’s management.
Saka is being run into the ground. He needs to be given periodic rests. When you bear in mind that he plays every game for England, the boy never seems to get a rest.
We gave Reece Nelson a new contract: we should use him more often.
I agree, he needs some rest, but our scoring is down this year, and I assume Arteta feels like he can’t take the chance that bringing Reiss in for Saka will reduce it even further.
Makes sense, but then if he’s constantly in the red (it’s ridiculous that he was limping at the end of one match a few weeks back and still it took mikel 10-15 min to take him off), we are close to a long term injury all the time. That is a much bigger risk than trusting your another academy product, who has shined when given both time and trust.
If saka is out and Arteta shunts trossard out right to accommodate nketia (if fit) our chances are greatly increased in terms of struggling to score. We lose all fluidity.
I really fancy Trossard up front instead of Eddie.
Amen to Partey coming back and having a big season.
Not bloody likely.