Mikel Arteta Reveals How Long Arsenal Star Bukayo Saka Will Be Out

Bukayo Saka is likely to be sidelined until at least March following surgery on his hamstring, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has revealed.

Arsenal climbed back to second place in the Premier League table with a 1-0 win over Ipswich at the Emirates. This match marked their first appearance without Saka, following the England winger’s hamstring injury during a 5-1 victory against Crystal Palace last weekend.

Before Friday’s fixture, Arteta said Saka would be sidelined for “many weeks”, but speaking in the moments after his side saw out a win that keeps the pressure on leaders Liverpool, Arteta afforded a grizzlier timeframe for his star man.

“He has had a procedure, and everything went well, but unfortunately, he will be out for many, many weeks,” said Arteta.

“It will be more than two months. I don’t know exactly how much longer. It will depend on how the scar tissue starts to heal, the first week or so, and the mobility of that. It is very difficult to say.

“The replacement of Bukayo is going to be the team. There were moments where it flowed well tonight and moments where you could see there was still work to do. But I am certain that we are going to do that. We have to rely on the team and not the individual.”

Saka’s injury will be a major setback for Arteta, who is striving to lead Arsenal to their first Premier League title in twenty years.

In Saka’s absence, and the Gunners’ final fixture of 2024, Kai Havertz scored the game’s sole goal midway through the opening period.

In the second half, Gabriel, Havertz, and Martin Ødegaard all missed opportunities to extend Arsenal’s lead.

However, their victory brings them back to within six points of league leaders Liverpool, having played one match more than the Reds. Arsenal is also one point ahead of Chelsea, who lost to Fulham on Boxing Day.

Arteta continued, “I am very happy with the victory and the clean sheet and big parts of the game. They are difficult opposition and we are playing so many games.

“You see that teams are winning from small margins. Today we could have made that margin bigger, but we didn’t, and we held our nerve in the last few minutes to defend well.

“We should have scored more. We had big openings in the second half, the big header of Gabriel from one yard, but the team was consistent and conceded nothing and that is something that will always give us the chance to win games.”

Arsenal’s next match is against Brentford on New Year’s Day.

Ipswich, currently second from bottom and three points adrift of safety, will host Chelsea on Monday night.