Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Bukayo Saka has undergone surgery on a hamstring injury.

The England international pulled up during Arsenal's 5-1 victory over Crystal Palace last week. Speaking in his press conference ahead of Friday night's clash with Ipswich, Arteta admitted the problem was serious.

"It’s not looking good," the Spaniard said. "He’s gonna be out for many weeks. "I cannot be too specific because I don’t know but it will be many weeks."

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Rumours have been circulating since over the severity of the problem for Saka with many suggesting the 23-year-old had gone under the knife. Arteta has now confirmed this to be the case.

"He had a procedure," the Spaniard said after Friday's 1-0 win over Ipswich. "Everything went well, but unfortunately he will be out for many, many weeks."

When pushed to provide a more detailed timeline Arteta admitted that Saka is unlikely to be back before March as a result of the surgery. "I said many weeks so I think it will be more than two months," he said. "I don’t know exactly how much longer. It will depend on how the scar tissue starts to heal, the first week or so, the mobility of that. Let’s see it’s very difficult to say."

There was at least more positive news on Raheem Sterling. The England international limped out of training last Friday with a knee injury, but Arteta admitted that he was hopeful that the issue was not as serious as first feared.

"We have to see this week how he evolves," he said. "We probably expected the knee injury to take longer than it has evolved in the last few days. Hopefully that’s good news because we need him."