Mikel Arteta said Arsenal “lost two players” to freak injuries during a post-match cool-down, something he said had “never happened in seven years” that he had spent at the club.
The Gunners returned to Premier League action after the extended international break with a 2-1 win over Leeds on Saturday, with Riccardo Calafiori and Bruno Guimaraes securing all three points despite them falling behind early.
But a post-match training session ended in disaster for Piero Hincapie, who was pictured being carried off the pitch, and Martin Zubimendi.
Arteta explained on Monday: “We had a training session planned for after the game for players that did not have enough minutes, and in two very unfortunate actions we lost two players. Not great.
“We need to assess them today and have further scans to see where they are then we will have a timeframe on how long they are going to be out for.
“It's far from ideal.”
Both players missed training on Monday morning ahead of Arsenal’s Champions League encounter with Lille at the Emirates on Tuesday night.
Arteta said both were ankle injuries, with the one suffered by Hincapie more serious, while he also seemed displeased goalkeeper Illan Meslier carried the Ecuador international off the pitch rather than a member of staff. He said: “That's something else, not to discuss here.”
He had a sharp response when asked what could be done to prevent such injuries occurring, saying: “Very easy, you don't train. If they never train then they don't get injured, but the consequence to that is when they are needed to play they have no rhythm and when you ask them to play they are going to have no impact in the game.
“That could happen at the Emirates - it never happened in seven years that I have been here. It could happen the next day in the training session. That has happened before and hopefully it doesn't happen again.
“What can you do? If I had a crystal ball I would just say ‘guys, get in the Jacuzzi and I will see you tomorrow’.”
However, he had more positive news on William Saliba, with the Frenchman having returned to training after suffering a back injury at the World Cup this summer.
He said: “[He has been back] now for over a week at least. It is about managing that load and how many repetitions and sessions in a row that he can do. But he is building now his capacity to do good standards and then in the coming weeks we can start to introduce him again into the team to see where we are and when we can actually make him available to the squad.”
The Spaniard added that “we are still talking in terms of weeks” before Saliba’s return and he did not know for sure whether he would be fit after the next international break in November.
He added: “It is a very specific healing process and I cannot tell you exactly how he is going to react to it.”