Arsenal fans spot sign of Bukayo Saka injury progress | OneFootball

Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka appears to be making progress in his recovery from a hamstring injury, walking without crutches before Saturday’s game against Aston Villa.

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Arsenal fans were pleased to see Bukayo Saka in attendance for the north London derby earlier this week, with the player joining fellow injured youngster Ethan Nwaneri on the sidelines as the Gunners warmed up.

What was slightly less encouraging was the fact that the winger was still getting around on crutches. But it’s been less than a month since his hamstring surgery, so that’s no real surprise.

Even so, it was nice to see that when Saka attended Arsenal’s game against Aston Villa on Saturday, he was no longer using the crutches. Journalists and fans shared videos of the player on social media standing and walking unaided.

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Saka was a key player for Arsenal prior to his injury, scoring nine goals and assisting 13 in all competitions. Even after almost a month out of action, the 23-year-old remains Arsenal’s second-top scorer (Kai Havertz is top with 13 goals) and top assist provider this campaign.

Understandably, the fans are keen to see the player back in action, but it will still be a while yet.

Optimistic estimates put Saka’s return date at some point in March, and likely more towards the end of the month than the start of it.

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That means Saka will miss the Champions League knockout play-off round (if applicable), the round-of-16, and the League Cup final (if Arsenal can pull off a shock semi-final second-leg result), as well as plenty of Premier League fixtures between now and then.