Arsenal suffer Declan Rice injury scare during Wolves victory

Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice caused an injury scare for his manager Mikel Arteta after being forced off clutching his right calf during the 2-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The Gunners found themselves in control of the contest against the West Midlands outfit from the 25th minute onwards when Kai Havertz opened the scoring. Bukayo Saka made it 2-0 thanks to a brilliant goal with just over a quarter of an hour remaining at the Emirates Stadium.

However, Arsenal fans were sent into panic ten minutes later when Rice was substituted looking in some discomfort. It appeared to be nothing more than cramp and Arteta confirmed after the game that was the issue adding that his short pre-season led to tiredness late on, saying: "Yeah he was cramping. He hasn’t had the longest pre-season ever. But he was really trying and he put an unbelievable performance again. At the end he was struggling a bit."

Last season, Rice featured in every single Premier League match for the Gunners and only failed to complete 90 minutes when starting on six occasions. Arteta is likely to have been playing it safe with Rice after he had a long summer with the England squad and football.london understands the player is absolutely fine and should be OK for his side's next game, which is on Saturday evening at Aston Villa.

The Three Lions reached the Euro 2024 final in Germany and Rice was a stalwart in the centre of the midfield. Due to this, the 25-year-old was afforded an extended break and did not join his teammates in the United States for the pre-season tour.

Rice arrived back at training on August 4 and featured as a second-half substitute in the victory over Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday, August 7 before getting 64 minutes under his belt in the 2-0 win over Lyon four days later.

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Arsenal return to action in the Premier League next Saturday teatime when they travel to Villa in the late kick-off.