Ahead of Arsenal’s EFL Cup tie with Port Vale on Wednesday, Mikel Arteta provided some injury updates on a few key first-teamers.
Noni Madueke‘s knee injury is the big bit of news emerging from the Gunners’ camp over the last few days, with media reports suggesting that he’ll be out for 6-8 weeks.
Arteta wasn’t that specific in Tuesday’s pre-match presser but he did confirm a period of absence was likely.
“Yes, it looks like he’s going to be out for a few weeks. We don’t know yet, we’re probably going to have to scan him next week again. He felt something at the beginning of the match, he tried to carry on, and at half-time, he was too sore, so let’s see.
“We hope [it’s weeks rather than months]. As I said, we need to scan him again to see the real extent of the injury, but it doesn’t look too bad.” – Mikel Arteta on Noni Madueke
The Arsenal boss went on to provide the latest on Martin Odegaard (shoulder) and Piero Hincapie (groin), who both missed Sunday’s draw with Manchester City.
“No, no surgery. He’s totally fine. He’s already been training and it will be a matter of days, I think.” – Mikel Arteta on Martin Odegaard
“He picked up a little groin injury. We’ll have to assess him again in the next few days to see how he goes. There’s been a change of load, and he didn’t really have a pre-season after the surgery that he had. We’ll have to see in the next week or so how he is.
“I think it will be a short time.” – Mikel Arteta on Piero Hincapie
Kai Havertz (knee) and Gabriel Jesus (knee) also remain out, with the former’s rehab discussed on Tuesday.
“With Kai, we know that it will be months with him. I don’t know if it can be weeks, you never know because this is Kai and he’s a different specimen. We really miss him. Hopefully, he will be back, and back for the long term as well, so it is very important to look after that knee. So far, he’s progressing pretty well.” – Mikel Arteta on Kai Havertz
Madueke’s injury means one less positional rival for the fit-again Bukayo Saka, who marked his comeback from his own lay-off with 45 minutes in Gameweek 5.
Arteta stressed that Saka would be “gradually” exposed to more game-time, however.
“He needs minutes and he’s demanding that as well. Obviously, when he’s been out for a while, you just need to get in the rhythm, you need to get that confidence on the pitch and repeat actions and exposure. We will do that, gradually, because he’s been out for a while. But I like what I saw the other day when he came on.” – Mikel Arteta on Bukayo Saka
- READ MORE: Ekitike banned for FPL Gameweek 6 – could Isak start?
- READ MORE: Maresca on if Palmer needs surgery + Pedro’s “small problem”
