Sky Sports reporter Gary Cotterill has provided an update on Bukayo Saka’s fitness ahead of Arsenal match against Manchester City on Sunday.
Saka could be seen limping off for the Gunners‘ during after just half an hour of their Champions League defeat to Lens on Tuesday evening.
The 21-year-old set up Gabriel Jesus to score before being forced off with an injury and replaced by Fabio Vieira.
Lens would go on to win the game 2-1 courtesy of goals from Adrien Thomasson Elye Wahi, but it was the sight of Saka hobbling off the pitch that may have caused Mikel Arteta the greatest concern.
However, Cotterill has suggested the injury may not be as bad as it seems, claiming his departure could have been precautionary.
“I don’t want to give Arsenal and England fans false hope. But the feeling around here,
And not at all official, is that Saka may not be too bad,”
Cotterill said on the Sky Sports live match-blog. “Perhaps a muscle strain or maybe a precaution.”
Supporters will certainly hope that is the case as they prepare to host reigning League champions
Manchester City in a crunch match at the Emirates on Sunday.
Is saka fit to play for Arsenal ?
When asked if he regretted picking Saka for the game against Lens following knocks against both Tottenham and Bournemouth, Arteta replied: “No. It was a knock that he the other day and he was perfectly fine. It was a back-heel, an action that can produce that kind of injury.
“Let’s see what the extent of it is and afterwards it’s too late. The last few were more knocks than anything else.
“He hasn’t really missed games. We gave him a break against Brentford (in the Carabao Cup) last week and that was all.
“He tried to backheel a ball in the first half and felt something muscular. He felt uncomfortable to carry on so we had to take him off.
“We don’t know anything more. It was big enough not to allow him to continue to play the game and that’s a worry for us.
“He was really looking forward to playing like every player. It was a big Champions League night. I painted a picture and the type of scenario we were going to face today and they all knew about it.
“But this Champions League is so difficult to win away from home. Today we take a big lesson.”
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is demanding that his side’s 2-1 defeat to Spurs is replayed after PGMOL met the club’s request and released the audio to further highlight the “significant human” error made in relation to Luis Diaz’s wrongly disallowed goal on Saturday.
When the linesman raised his flag, the incident was refer to VAR and the lines drew showed Cristian Romero had played Diaz onside.
