Arteta says Arsenal star ‘doing everything he can’ to make Liverpool clash – and provides update on Saka’s injury | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Bukayo Saka is set to be out for “a few weeks” with a hamstring injury.

The winger pulled up against Leeds and was forced off, with the Englishman now set for another spell on the sidelines having missed three months of last season with a separate hamstring issue.

“Bukayo is doing better, but he will be out for a few weeks,” Arteta said.

“No, no surgery. It’s not as bad as the previous one. Obviously, very unfortunate to kick it off, he’s on the other side. It’s an action that requires full power from him. Then he clashed with the opponent, he needs to change pace again. And he felt something, so it will be out for a couple of weeks.

“Let’s see how he evolves in the next few days, few weeks. Repeat the scan and see where he’s at.”

Skipper Martin Odegaard was also forced off against Leeds after suffering a shoulder injury but Arteta has not completely ruled him out of facing Liverpool on Sunday.

“He hasn’t trained yet and, if he does, it will be tomorrow,” he said. “He is doing everything he can to make himself available. We are doing everything we can to make him available. But we have to wait and see.

“There’s an injury there, but hopefully if everything goes well, he can cope with it. But we don’t know yet.”

Christian Norgaard, Ben White and Leandro Trossard also remain as doubts for Sunday’s game.

Kai Havertz is certain to miss the game after undergoing knee surgery, but Arteta is hopeful he will not be out for the long-term.

On Havertz, Arteta said: “I think it will be weeks, but I don’t know how many months.

“Very unfortunate, very sad for him. I think he did tremendously well to recover from the previous one. He’s never had an injury before. And suddenly this happens, but this is our profession, football. We need to live with that.

“Obviously, we lose another big player for many, many weeks. But it was the right thing to do. The doctors advised and I think he was very convinced at the end that it was the quickest and the best way to resolve that issue.”

Join our Arsenal Whatsapp channel to stay up to date with all the latest Gunners news.