Mikel Arteta confirms two Arsenal injury blows – and gives update on Havertz, Odegaard and Saka | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta says Noni Madueke is set to miss “a few weeks” with the knee injury he suffered against Manchester City.

The 23-year-old was substituted off at half-time of the 1-1 draw with Arteta revealing he tried to carry on with the injury after suffering it early on in the game.

“It looks like he’s going to be out for a few weeks,” Arteta said.

“We don’t really know yet. Probably we’re going to have to scan him next week again. He felt something at the beginning of the match, he tried to carry on and half-time was too sore, so let’s see.

Asked if it will be weeks rather than months, Arteta responded: “We hope so, we hope so. As I said, we need to scan him again to see the real extent of the injury, but it doesn’t look too bad.

“He was gutted, obviously very disappointed for him because he was in such a good state.

“He looked a real threat, he was getting some consistency, some flow now into the team and he looked like a real threat, so it’s a big miss for us.”

Defender Piero Hincapie is also set for a spell on the sidelines with a groin injury, meanwhile.

“He picked a little groin injury,” Arteta said. “We’ll have to again assess him in the next few days (to see) how he goes.

“Obviously it’s been a change of load and he didn’t really have a pre-season after the surgery that he had and we’ll have to see in the next week or so how he is.”

“I think that would be a short-term surgery.”

Forward Kai Havertz is also still a way off returning, Arteta says.

“With Kai we know that it will be months with him,” he said.

“You never know because this is Kai and he’s a different specimen and we really miss him. Hopefully he will be back and back for the long term as well, which is very important, to look after that knee, and so far he’s progressing really well.”

But Martin Odegaard has been training with the team following his shoulder injury.

“No, no surgery,” Arteta said on his captain. “He’s totally fine. He’s already been training and it will be a matter of days, I think.”

Bukayo Saka returned to action off the bench in the draw with City but Arteta insists he will have to be patient with him following another hamstring problem.

“He needs minutes and he’s demanding that as well,” he said. “Obviously, when he’s been out for a while, you just need to get in there.

“You need to get that confidence on the pitch and repeat actions and exposure. And we will do that, obviously gradually because he’s been out for a while. But I like what I saw the day when he came on.”

The Gunners take on League One side Port Vale in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday looking to get back to winning ways.