Mikel Arteta says the injury sustained by left-back Riccardo Calafiori during Arsenal’s victory over Shakhtar Donetsk is “not great news”, while Bukayo Saka is “unlikely” to be available against Liverpool on Sunday.
Calafiori was replaced by Myles Lewis-skelly after 72 minutes at the Emirates, limping off after gesturing to the bench that he needed to be substituted.
Arteta was unable to expand on the severity of the problem or provide a timeframe for his return ahead of the weekend’s visit of Premier League leaders Liverpool.
“He felt something,” Arteta said. “I don’t know the extent of that. It’s not great news.”
Saka has missed Arsenal’s last two with a hamstring injury sustained on international duty. The winger was forced off during England’s Nations League defeat to Greece and subsequently withdrew from the squad.
“I don’t know, he wasn’t able to train yet so that’s unlikely,” Arteta told Amazon Prime.
Arteta did confirm his decision to substitute Ben White at half-time was because the defender had picked up a yellow card and was not injury related. White, who made his comeback against Bournemouth on Saturday following a knee injury, was booked after 34 minutes, with Arsenal having been reduced to 10 men in three of their eight Premier League matches this season.
”Ben, it was my decision to take him out,” the Arsenal head coach said. “He had a yellow card. We’ve played enough with 10 men in this recent period, and they had a lot of density on that side, a lot of attacking players on that side, and it made sense.”
Thomas Partey moved to right-back in White’s absence, with Arsenal facing a shortage of defenders ahead of Sunday’s visit of Liverpool. William Saliba is suspended for the fixture, while Jurrien Timber has not featured since being forced off at half time with a muscular problem against Paris Saint-Germain at the beginning of October.
Arsenal were 1-0 winners over Shakhtar following goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk’s first-half own goal.
(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
