Arsenal have suffered a huge blow with striker Vivianne Miedema set to miss the rest of the season due to a knee injury.

Miedema ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee playing against Lyon last week and will undergo surgery in the coming days.

The full length of Miedema’s time on the sidelines won’t be known until after surgery, but she faces a real fight to be back playing this season.

Miedema’s injury is a huge blow for Arsenal, who lost England forward Beth Mead to the same injury only last month.

Mead has already undergone surgery but she also faces a fight to get back before the end of this season and ahead of next summer’s World Cup.

Miedema will also be sweating on making the World Cup, with the Netherlands one of the sides hoping to go all the way in Australia and New Zealand.

“We can confirm that Vivianne Miedema suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament during our UEFA Women’s Champions League match against Lyon at Emirates Stadium on Thursday,” Arsenal said in a statement on Monday morning.

“Viv will undergo surgery in the coming days and will unfortunately be ruled out for an extended period of time.

“A more detailed timescale will be established once the operation is complete. Everyone at Arsenal wishes Viv well in her recovery and will be providing her with all the support she needs to return to action as soon as possible.”

Writing on social media, Miedema added: “Absolutely gutted to share I’ve ruptured my ACL in our last game against Lyon.

“It was one of those moments, where I knew straight away. So many things going through your head: I won’t be able to help my team anymore this season, no World Cup, surgery and rehab for a long, long time.

“I won’t be telling you I’ll come back stronger or that I’m looking forward to spend the next however many months in the gym. It will be tough with plenty of difficult days (plenty of crying, which we’ve had a lot of already), but sadly enough it’s part of football.

“I’m lucky enough to have amazing team-mates, friends and family around me and Beth, who can guide me through everything that’s coming while only being a couple of weeks ahead of me. (Can’t wait to do some boxing in the gym after she’s been annoying me for a while).

“Thank you for all our messages, I do really appreciate them and they are helping me a lot! For now, I’ll be getting myself ready for surgery and it’s time for a much needed Christmas break.”