Mikel Arteta has expressed concern over Bukayo Saka’s robustness after another injury to the forward, who limped off in Arsenal’s 2-2 Champions League draw with Bayern Munich. The 25-year-old is set for an MRI scan on a thigh issue, and Arteta said there was “quite a lot of fluid in the area so it was difficult to understand the extent of the injury”. Saka will definitely miss Saturday’s game against Everton, and it is understood that Arsenal fear the problem could be a grade-two tear that might keep him out for up to six weeks.
The injury comes after a difficult period for Saka, who missed a large portion of last season because of hamstring, hip and achilles tendon injuries and had also been sidelined by another hamstring issue in 2024-25. In total, he has had 11 different injuries since September 2023, and Arteta insisted he has been trying to ease the forward’s workload as a result. Asked whether Saka remains robust enough to start every match, Arteta said: “It’s certainly been different in the last year or so.” He pointed to the demands placed on players, the number of games, the intensity of matches, international competitions and the narrowing gaps between fixtures.
Arteta cited Arsenal’s recent schedule as an example of the pressure on Saka. He said Saka did not start against Lille in the Champions League last week because Arsenal knew what was happening, with the team having to play three times in less than six days. Arteta also stressed the need to manage Saka carefully when he returns, saying Arsenal must create the right ecosystem around the player and “really need to understand, whenever he comes back, how we are going to manage his load, what he is capable of to sustain having an impact in the team”. Asked whether he feared Saka could suffer from burnout, Arteta said he did not have that feeling at all.
Saka’s recent injury problems sit alongside a heavy workload in previous seasons. He missed only three Premier League matches in three seasons between 2021 and 2024 and broke the Arsenal club record by playing in 83 consecutive top-flight games. He is already approaching 300 appearances for the club he joined as a seven-year-old and was rewarded with a lucrative new contract in February that made him one of the highest-paid players in the club’s history.
Saka’s absence could hand an opportunity to Max Dowman on Saturday. The 16-year-old has played only nine minutes in the league this season, but Arteta feels sure he is ready to make an impact after he became the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history against David Moyes’s side in March. Arteta said the memory of that moment will stay in the stadium for a long time and that Dowman is training and showing he can impact games. “For sure he’s going to have minutes,” Arteta said.