Bukayo Saka is set to miss several months of action through injury after the Arsenal winger underwent surgery.
The 23-year-old tore his hamstring during the first half of the Gunners’ 5-1 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park at the weekend.
Arsenal supporters feared that Saka would be out for an extended period after he walked out of the ground on crutches, and those fears have now been confirmed by Mikel Arteta.
The head coach revealed that the England international has undergone a successful operation to repair the issue and could be out for more than two months while he recovers.
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“He had a procedure,” Arteta said after Arsenal beat Ipswich Town 1-0 at home on Friday night. “Everything went well, but unfortunately he will be out for many, many weeks.
“I said many weeks so I think it will be more than two months. 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.”
Raheem Sterling could return sooner than expected after he sustained a knee injury in training last week, forcing him to miss the wins over Palace and Ipswich.
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“We have to see this week how he evolves,” Arteta 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.”
Arsenal were uninspiring in attack as they grinded their way to a narrow victory over a very defensive Ipswich side, which saw them move into second place in the Premier League.
“It will be different [without Saka],” said Arteta. “We had moments in the second half. It is a unit that is new and will take time for players to understand fully.
“In the first half especially we were super dominant and should have scored more chances. The second half we didn’t start great and credit to them, they were tough to break down and are well organised.
“Considering all the circumstances we had this season, the amount of times we had to play with 10 men, all the injuries that we had, it’s good to be in the position that we are [in the Premier League] but it’s not where we want to be. We want to be first.”
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