Mikel Arteta has revealed what he was doing as Arsenal suffered Bukayo Saka injury blow
If Mikel Arteta did watch England’s game with Greece in which his star player Bukayo Saka became the fourth player this season to pick up an injury on international duty, he has admitted already he did not want to. Saka joins Riccardo Calafiori, Martin Odegaard and Oleksandr Zinchenko who have missed matches following issues suffered with their nations.
Odegaard and Zinchenko both remain out with the hope they could return in the coming weeks, although the club captain’s prognosis was not exactly optimistic from Arteta. Arsenal have coped well in their absence, beating Tottenham, Bolton, Leicester, PSG and Southampton whilst coming excruciatingly close to victory at Manchester City too.
Losing yet another huge profile in Saka though will put another strain on the group that Arteta needs to address. We know already what Arteta’s feelings were about the games while his domestic responsibilities are put on hold.
Speaking to the media ahead of the final Premier League game before the break he was asked about the worry of further injuries. He explained that the last break was particularly gutting.
“I prefer not to watch the games!” he said. “I pray that everybody is going to be fine, because the last one was a really difficult one to handle in many ways.”
Naturally, following such an injury, for the second break in a row, it leads to anger from fans. There is certainly empathy for that frustration and discussions around the volume of games and the question of necessity in them too comes to the fore.
“It’s been like this for years,” he said. “We’re not going to change that, it’s part of the duties that they have, all the European teams.
“South Americans as well, it’s the same thing. But we have to adapt to that and hopefully be healthy.”
Gabriel Magalhaes and Gabriel Martinelli both played in Brazil’s 2-1 win over Chile on Thursday night and will travel back across the Atlantic in the mid-to-late part of next week before a Saturday afternoon game in Bournemouth. The demands on players continue to boggle the mind and injuries seem to be on the increase – yet change does not look like a reality that is on the horizon.
