Latest Arsenal injury news as four miss Bournemouth after Odegaard update and Saka announcement

Mikel Arteta could have up to eight Arsenal stars absent through injury for their return to Premier League action against Bournemouth. The Gunners currently sit third in the table and boast an unbeaten record from seven games, despite the huge absences Arteta has had to cover for.

The latest injury worry has arrived surrounding Bukayo Saka after he was withdrawn in England’s Nations League clash against Greece. After the game, head coach Lee Carsley offered an early update on his condition. “He’s being assessed. In the build-up to the first goal, you could see he felt something in his leg,” he said.

Saka has since returned to London Colney in order to undergo further assessment with his availability to feature against the Cherries in serious doubt. With Saka having returned early from international duty, Thomas Partey and Kai Havertz did not even make it that far.

The decision was made for both to not represent Ghana and Germany, respectively, in order to manager minor injuries and thus they will likely be in contention to make the clash on the south coast. One player guaranteed to be absent for that game is club captain Martin Odegaard as he continues to recover from ankle ligament damage.

Having already missed the last few weeks, it is expected he will not be back until November, though his most recent update was a promising one. “I just wanted to start with the latest on my injury and rehab. In the last week or so I’ve made really good progress,” he revealed in his Arsenal programme notes.

“Hopefully it won’t be much longer; I think we will know more as soon as I get out on the training pitches and we see how my ankle responds to that. At the moment it’s progressing well and it looks better than we were thinking, but we’ve still got to take every day as it comes.”

Elsewhere, Jurrien Timber and Ben White will enter next weekend’s league fixture as injury doubts after they both missed the clash at home to Southampton before the international break. The duo have since had two weeks to recover though and Arteta’s comments from earlier this month certainly suggests they will be back.

“We had to modify training for a lot of players.” the Spaniard said. “It was the same today because of the load that they had. There will be a decision to make this afternoon whether to involve them yes or no. They are close. It’s good news.”

Takehiro Tomiyasu joined Mikel Merino as a recent returner last week with both having missed the first few months of the campaign. Oleksandr Zinchenko is also closing in on a return from a calf issue but it is firmly up in the air whether or not that comes against Bournemouth.

Kieran Tierney meanwhile is still absent because of a hamstring injury with summer signing Tommy Setford seeing a hip issue keep him out of action.