Viktor Gökeres is the latest Arsenal player to suffer an injury after the Swedish forward was substituted against Burnley, with timetable for return revealed
Arsenal are eyeing a north London derby with the return of Victor Gokeres and Gabriel Martinelli. The Gunners hope the pair will be available after the international break starts next week.
Jokeles scored in Saturday’s Premier League game against Burnley, but was ruled out after half-time due to a muscle problem. The Swede did not travel to Arsenal’s Champions League game against Slavia Prague and is not expected to feature in this weekend’s game against Sunderland.
Mikel Arteta admitted he was worried about Gokeres’ prognosis when previewing Arsenal’s European matches. “I’m worried because he didn’t have too many muscle problems and he had to leave the pitch,” Arteta said.
“He felt something and that’s obviously never a good sign, especially for a player who’s so explosive. We’re looking at it a little bit more to understand the injury situation. We’ll make an announcement when we know more.”
According to The Athletic, Arsenal hope both Gokeres and Martinelli will be back in action by the end of the month.
read more: Arsenal may be forced to make another emergency transfer due to Victor Gokeres injuryread more: Jamie Carragher makes shocking decision to end this season’s Premier League contract
Arteta also revealed that Gokeres’ progress had stalled and he was depressed. “After the game he was very disappointed in how he felt, but that’s part of football,” Arteta said.
“At the end of the day, you expect everything to go in a straight line, but that’s not going to happen. If he has something that he needs to deal with, we’re going to help him achieve that.”
“As you said, he was in a really good moment and in really good shape, which is very important for the team. But as for tomorrow, we don’t have him, so that’s it.”
The forward’s recovery could just be the spearhead of a number of stars returning to competition in time to face Tottenham. Noni Maduke, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard could still return to the squad, but Martinelli has already missed Arsenal’s remaining three games.
“I think for a few weeks and some of them, if they continue to evolve the way they are, they can be ready to go,” Arteta said last week of the group of injured players. “It’s difficult to play games. You know there’s an international break, where you have two weeks off and then I think you’ll be back a little bit.”
“I don’t know if it’s going to be for everyone or for some, but I think we’re pretty close to that.”
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