Arsenal’s Saka a doubt for mid-week with foot injury

BBC
BBC
Bukayo Saka

Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka will miss his side’s Carabao Cup tie at Brentford on Wednesday and could also be out of Saturday’s league game at Bournemouth.

The 22-year-old England winger suffered a foot injury in the 2-2 draw with Tottenham on Sunday and was replaced by Emile Smith Rowe just before the final whistle.

“He was limping quite badly after the match,” said Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta.

“We had to get him off the field, which is never a good sign.”

Asked if Saka could miss the Premier League match at Bournemouth, Arteta added: “It’s a possibility, yes.”

The forward has scored four goals and registered three assists from seven games in the Premier League and Champions League this season.

If Saka does miss the game against the Cherries it will end his club-record run of 86 consecutive Premier League appearances.

Arsenal defender Jurrien Timber has a long term knee injury, while team-mates Thomas Partey, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli are also out injured.

Gunners midfielder Declan Rice came off at half-time against Spurs but his back injury is not considered “too serious” by Arteta.

“It’s true that they play with the national teams and they’re coming from a season where they had a World Cup and some players played 60-odd games,” said the Spaniard.

“We’ve been unlucky. Jurrien, for example, was due to other reasons, while Bukayo was because someone stepped on him.

“There are some traumatic injuries, others are more muscular. We try to find the ways to avoid them but they’re a part of football.

“It’s true that we have a lot of internationals in the last few windows and they have quite a lot of exposure to minutes but at the moment we have a squad that is not 24 players.

“To change 11 or 12 players [against Brentford] is just not a possibility we have.”

Share This Article