Mikel Arteta has confirmed that yet another Arsenal star is injured ahead of their Carabao Cup third-round match against Port Vale on Wednesday.
This follows that news that Noni Madueke has been sidelined for around two months after picking up a knee injury during the 1-1 draw with Manchester City on Sunday.
Staggeringly, Arsenal have seen at least one player limp off with injury in each of their five Premier League matches this season.
While Bukayo Saka and Ben White returned to face the Citizens, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus remain sidelined.
Just prior to Sunday’s kick-off, Arteta said that both captain Martin Odegaard and summer signing Piero Hincapie were not in the squad due to fitness issues.
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Following his Gunners debut as a very late substitute in the Champions League win over Athletic Club last week, many expected Hincapie to make his first start for the club against Port Vale.
But Arteta has confirmed that will not happen: ‘He picked a little groin injury. We have to again assess him in the next few days.
‘There’s been a change of load and he didn’t really have a pre-season after the injury. We’ll have to see in the next week or so how he is. I think a short time [out].’
Hincapie turned down Tottenham to move to the Emirates on loan from Bayer Leverkusen on deadline day, with Arsenal holding the option to buy him next summer for £45million.
Thankfully for the Gunners, it seems the defender won’t be out for nearly as long as his teammates, while Arteta also revealed that Odegaard does not need surgery for his shoulder issue and has already done some light training.
Nevertheless, the amount of injury blows at the club is very concerning, however while the manager is looking into the problem, he believes it could just be a lot of bad luck.
He added: ‘We looked at obviously everything. The one with Noni, it is bad luck. It’s a very unfortunate incident with Kai. Something similar with Ben White.
‘With Martin Odegaard, it has been very similar because he damaged his shoulder twice doing the same action on the floor, which is very unlikely to happen.
‘With Bukayo, it was more a muscular injury with the hamstring. Maybe something to look at more in-depth, and we absolutely did that. Try to keep that as low as possible. That’s what we are trying to do.
‘He [Madueke] was gutted, obviously. Very disappointing to see him because he was in such a good state.
‘He looked a real threat. He was getting some consistency, some flow now into the team, and he looked like a real threat, so it’s a big miss for us.’
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