Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz will be sidelined for many weeks after picking up injuries while skipper Martin Odegaard is a doubt for their Premier League clash away at reigning champions Liverpool, manager Mikel Arteta said on Friday.
Saka limped off during Arsenal’s 5-0 home win over Leeds United and Arteta said he injured his hamstring. However, he will not require surgery which kept him out for months last season.
“Bukayo is doing better but he is out for a few weeks unfortunately. No surgery, it’s not as bad as the previous one,” Arteta told reporters.
“Obviously it’s very unfortunate to pick it up but it’s on the other side… Let’s see how he evolves in the next few days and weeks, repeat the scan and see where he’s at.”
Havertz injured his knee in their season opener at Manchester United and Arsenal confirmed the German underwent a minor surgical procedure.
“I think it will be weeks, but I don’t know how many months. Very unfortunate, very sad for him,” Arteta said of Havertz, who also underwent surgery on a hamstring injury earlier this year.
“He did tremendously well to recover from the previous one, he’d never had an injury before, and suddenly this happens.
“But this is our profession… we need to live with that. We lost another big player for many, many weeks, but it (surgery) was the right thing to do.”
Odegaard was also substituted early in the win over Leeds with a shoulder problem and Arteta said he is unsure if his skipper will play a part.
“We don’t know yet. He hasn’t trained yet and if he does it will be tomorrow,” he said.
New recruit Christian Norgaard and Ben White are also being monitored ahead of Sunday’s trip to Anfield, where Arsenal have not won in the Premier League since 2012.
“The favourite is always the one that won in the previous year. Someone has to come and take that crown away from them, and that’s what we, the rest, are going to try to do,” Arteta said.
“Very important game. You want to continue building the momentum we are in right now. Going to those grounds, against this kind of opposition, is what you want. Coming from those big games winning in a really convincing way is the objective.”
One player who could help in that regard is Eberechi Eze, who signed for Arsenal from Crystal Palace in a 68 million pounds ($91.86 million) deal last week.
“When you are next to him, you are comfortable. He’s got a big smile. He picks teams apart,” Arteta said.
“He asks you the right questions and then just let him flow with the ball and the ability he has to pick passes, to drive past people effortlessly and just to understand the timing of things, it’s very impressive.”
