Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Bukayo Saka is facing ‘many weeks’ out after the Arsenal winger injured his hamstring at Crystal Palace.
Saka was substituted in the first half of the club’s 5-1 win at Selhurst Park on Saturday evening. Arsenal’s worst fears have been confirmed with Saka facing an extended spell on the sidelines. It’s a huge blow to the club’s title hopes, with Saka having produced 15 goals and assists in 16 league appearances this season.
“It’s not looking good. He’s going to be out for many weeks,” Arteta said at a press conference ahead of Arsenal’s Boxing Day clash with Ipswich.
Asked if he feared Saka would miss the rest of the season, Arteta added: “No [there’s no fear]. I’m very optimistic he’ll be back before the end of the season.”
Arteta spoke on how Saka would handle his absence with the 23-year-old having been an almost ever-present since breaking into the Arsenal side.
“[It’s] another part of the development of a player. At some stage at this level you’re going to get injured.
“Unfortunately badly. It could have been much worse. It could have been something else that can take you out for a year.
“It’s how you react to that, how you overcome that situation and it’s a great learning process for him as well.
“It is what it is. He’s injured, we cannot change it. We’re going to use this time now to help him.”
The Spaniard also said that he believes injuries to Saka and Declan Rice this season are a result of too much football over the last two campaigns.
“It’s probably an accumulation of a number of seasons. Bukayo and Declan [Rice], they’ve played over 130 games in two seasons so what’s going to happen in the second one, the third one, the fourth one? If that continues the same way, it’s probably unsustainable.
“And we have to find ways to physically turn them into monsters. That they can cope with anything. The fact that you play and recover is not a good pattern because you don’t train. And the body needs to train. You start to lose a lot of factors in the physical aspect that’s key to performance.
“That’s a challenge which, OK, we’re trying to find ways to do it.”
