William Saliba has a ‘huge chance’ of being available for Arsenal’s showdown with Manchester City later this month after appearing to avoid a serious injury against Liverpool.
Saliba was replaced just five minutes into last Sunday’s Premier League showdown at Anfield having twisted in ankle during the warm-up.
After initially attempting to play through it, the centre-half was replaced by Cristhian Mosquera with Mikel Arteta admitting post-match he was ‘worried’ for his player.
Saliba was subsequently withdrawn from the France squad ahead of World Cup qualifiers against Ukraine and Iceland. A statement from the French Football Federation confirmed the defender suffered a ‘sprained ankle’ on Merseyside with Benjamin Pavard called into replace him.
Arsenal have been hit hard by injuries in the opening weeks of the season with Bukayo Saka sidelined with a hamstring problem. Kai Havertz meanwhile has undergone surgery with hope he will be able to return within weeks rather than months.
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Arsenal will be sweating over Saliba’s fitness with huge games against Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Newcastle United lying in wait.
But Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics working with the Premier League, believes Arsenal fans can be optimistic.
‘Everybody at Arsenal will be wiping their brow on that one because of his importance to the team,’ Smith told Metro.
‘It appeared innocuous. Not to say there aren’t challenges with a ligament sprain but if it were something like a hamstring injury it would be something they would have to be even more careful with.
‘With this, they will be able to get that right quite quickly, I would have thought. They will be able to protect it and strap it up if needed and be able to get back out there relatively quickly.
‘It didn’t appear to be a significant sprain, we would expect to see him back out there within two to three weeks.’
Smith’s timeline for return suggests Saliba will be firmly back in contention for their visit of City on 21 September.
The Gunners return to action after the international break against Nottingham Forest next Saturday with there a possibility he could even return in time for that game at the Emirates.
‘That one might be really close but they will be pushing him to try and get there,’ Smith continued.
‘It depends on how much swelling was there, how much pain he was in the day after. If swelling was minimal and pain was relatively innocuous that will give him a huge chance.’
from: elfutbolero.us