Mikel Arteta gives Bukayo Saka injury update ahead of Arsenal vs Everton

Mikel Arteta has given a worrying update on Bukayo Saka ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League clash with Everton this weekend.

The England international was forced off after just 10 minutes in Wednesday’s Champions League clash against Bayern Munich.

After playing a long-range pass, Saka immediately signalled to the Arsenal bench, briefly receiving treatment before hobbling off with a quad issue, to be replaced by Eberechi Eze.

Arteta initially offered a gloomy prognosis after the early withdrawal, admitting the issue ‘doesn’t look good at all.’

‘We are a bit concerned,’ the Arsenal boss said midweek. ‘Whenever a player has to come off with sharp pain, it’s never good news, but we’ll have to wait and see.’

Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Friday, Arteta explained the club are still awaiting to learn the full extent of the issue, with Saka undergoing further scans.

‘He’s got another MRI this afternoon because he had quite a lot of fluid in the area so it was difficult to understand the extent of the injury,’ Arteta said.

‘We need a few more scans and opinions from the specialists. When a player is struggling to walk without any pain, he’s restricted in movement, they are not good signs. Let’s be a little bit patient so we can give a definitive assessment.’

Saka was for so many years one of Arsenal’s most robust players, starting 87 consecutive games for the club between 2021 and 2023.

But he has had various muscular injuries in more recent years, requiring hamstring surgery at the end of 2024. Another hamstring issue kept him out for four weeks early last season, also missing three matches with a hip problem in January.

An Achilles tendinitis issue ruled him out of five matches in April, returning to help Arsenal get over the line in the title race.

But his involvement at the World Cup was impacted as a result of that issue, starting just two of seven matches before scoring a hat-trick in the third-place play-off.