Arsenal are facing another injury scare after Ethan Nwaneri was brought off at half-time against Brighton.
The 17-year-old put the Gunners ahead in their 1-1 draw on the south coast before being taken off at the break.
Given the wonderkid’s age and standing in the squad, many assumed that Mikel Arteta brought him off in a bid to manage his minutes and to ease the pressure on his young shoulders.
But speaking after full-time, Arteta delivered a worrying update.
The Spaniard explained: “Really bad news because I think we’ve lost him.
“We had to take him off at half-time with some muscular issues.”
Nwaneri has been hugely impressive and grabbed his second goal in an Arsenal shirt – breaking a club record for goals before his 18th birthday.
The news of his setback will come as a major blow given the Gunners’ injury struggles already this season.
Nwaneri has emerged as a more-than adequate replacement for Arsenal‘s star man, Bukayo Saka, who is facing a lengthy spell out after undergoing surgery on a hamstring injury.
Providing an update on Saka last week, Arteta said: “I would prefer to leave that to the doctor himself. But he had a procedure. Everything went well.
“But, unfortunately he will be out for many, many weeks.
“I think it will be more than two months. I don’t know exactly how much longer, I think it will depend, you know, how the scar tissue starts to heal the first week or so. The mobility of that.
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“Let’s see. It’s very difficult to say.”
With Saka out for the foreseeable and Nwaneri facing the prospect of a spell out, Arteta may have to turn to Raheem Sterling who is recovering from a knee injury.
But in a recent update, it seems that Sterling isn’t far from a return.
Arteta added: “The news with Raz, I think it’s better. We have to see this week how he evolves.
“But we expect it, the knee injury to probably take longer than actually the way the knee is evolving in the last few days.
“So, hopefully that’s good because we need him.”
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Arsenal will need their player back fit as they look to close the gap on Liverpool in the title race, with Arne Slot’s side five points clear at the top of the table with two games in hand.
