Arsenal suffered a major injury on Monday after Mikel Arteta confirmed his winger Bukayo Saka will be out for “several weeks” with a torn hamstring.
Sources told ESPN that the 23-year-old learned the news after seeing a specialist, having left the stadium on crutches following the Gunners’ 5-1 win at Crystal Palace last weekend.
“It’s not looking good,” Areta said. “He’s going to be out for several weeks. I can’t be too specific because I don’t know, but it will be several weeks.
“It’s a big blow. He’s obviously a great player for us, you just have to see the impact he has on the team. It will be a very good exercise for us to think about ways to overcome another challenge because we have had many during the season.
“I’m putting together some ideas. I haven’t gotten there yet. But I have a few. Then I also want to talk with the players to understand how we’re going to generate this and take it in a positive way . Because that means we’re going to be different.
“He was gutted. You can tell he wasn’t hurt because he was really, really emotional and really depressed. And we have to pick him up. That’s a big part of his job. And he’s going to be OK but he is It will take him a few days He will immediately realize that he is so important in this locker room.
“His energy level, his body language and the way he communicates with the rest of the team has to be really good because that’s the only way at the moment he can help, so he better be good do it.”
Even if Arteta was keen to highlight internal alternatives, the new Raheem Sterling is also set to remain sidelined following a knee injury, which is another blow given the Chelsea loanee would have been an obvious replacement.
“He’s going to be out for weeks, I think,” Arteta said. “He needs further tests tomorrow to understand the extent of his injury. It’s his knee. We have to wait another 24 hours. Unfortunately, he’s going to be out for a while.”
This is the third hamstring injury Saka has suffered this season.
The England international is a key player for Arteta, starting 16 of his 17 Premier League matches – having only missed October’s 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth through injury.
He has amassed nine goals and 13 assists in 24 games in all competitions and when asked if Arsenal were prepared to dive into the January transfer market to replace Saka if necessary, Arteta replied: “The preparation is finished and we are ready if something happens. Obviously we didn’t anticipate a situation with Bukayo and Raheem out at the same time.
“We kind of anticipated that it would be something else, like if something happened in the defensive line. But the job is done and, okay, if something should happen, we will be open. But the main focus now is to know how are we going to still extract a lot of potential that there is in this team.
Arsenal host Ipswich at the Emirates Stadium on Friday.
