Bukayo Saka out for more than two months after surgery
Arsenal fear that Bukayo Saka will be out of action for more than two months, after the England winger underwent surgery on his torn hamstring.
Saka suffered the serious injury in Arsenal’s 5-1 victory at Crystal Palace last weekend, with the club’s medical staff knowing immediately that he would be out for an extended period of time.
Following a successful operation in recent days, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said Saka could now be out for around eight weeks, if not longer.
“He had a procedure and everything went well, but unfortunately he will be out for many, many weeks,” said Arteta. “I think it will be more than two months. I don’t know exactly how much longer.
“I think it will depend on how the scar tissue starts to heal in the first week or so, the mobility of it. Let’s see. It’s very difficult to say.”
In better news for Arsenal, the knee injury suffered by Raheem Sterling is not as serious as initially thought. Sterling is effectively the backup option for Saka on the right wing and he will be expected to play more regularly in the coming weeks if he can maintain his fitness.
“We have to see this week how he evolves but we expected the knee injury to probably take longer than actually the way it is evolving in the last few days,” said Arteta of Sterling. “Hopefully that is good because we need him.”
It remains to be seen whether the encouraging news on Sterling’s injury reduces the need for Arsenal to add another forward to their squad during the transfer window.
In their 1-0 victory over Ipswich Town on Friday, Gabriel Martinelli played in the right wing position usually occupied by Saka. He was supported by full-back Jurrien Timber, who impressed throughout the game.
“I think the replacement of B is going to be the team and that unit in particular,” said Arteta. “Having minutes together, asking different things. There were moments when it flowed really well and moments that can still have some work to do there. It is a unit that is new and will take time for players to understand fully.”
“We have to rely on the team. That is the biggest strength of us. We never relied on an individual scoring 20 or 30 goals and we have managed to be very competitive still, and we are going to manage to do that.”
