Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confessed the club are unsure whether Eddie Nketiah's injury is a long-term one.
Nketiah picked up a knock before the recent victory over Leicester City and was removed from the starting lineup, although he was fit enough to come off the bench later in the game.
The striker also came off the bench in Wednesday's 4-0 win over Everton but looked noticeably uncomfortable and collapsed to the ground after the full-time whistle before heading straight down the tunnel.
With Bournemouth heading to the Emirates on Saturday, Arteta confessed that Nketiah's involvement in the game remains up in the air.
"We are assessing him," Arteta told his pre-match press conference. "It's a bit uncertain what will happen with him to be honest in the training sessions.
"Let’s see, let’s keep the options open. He’s very positive about it and hopefully he’ll be fine."
Arteta was then asked whether Nketiah would be out of action for a long time, to which he responded: "Hopefully not," before admitting he did not know how long Nketiah could be on the sidelines.
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Leandro Trossard has been starting in attack in the absence of Nketiah, who himself was deputising for the injured Gabriel Jesus.
Jesus is nearing a return from a knee injury which he picked up at the World Cup, and Arteta admitted Arsenal are confident the Brazilian will be back in action soon.
"He’s not far now," Arteta said. "I don’t want to give a timeline, but he’s doing certain things with the team and certain things outside the team still. He’s not very close, but he’s not very far. He’s feeling better every day and the doctors are feeling confident with how he’s evolving. We are in a good place with him, I think.
"[His recovery has] been pretty straightforward. At the beginning we were pretty concerned about the possible extent of the injury because there were a few options there and thankfully it wasn’t that bad. But it was a long-term injury, required surgery and it was not pleasing, especially the first few weeks. Knowing Gabi, he has been through that before, his mentality is just incredible and the team has done a really good job with him to put him in the position he’s in today."
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On this edition of The Chronicles of a Gooner, part of the 90min podcast network, Harry Symeou looks back at Arsenal's 4-0 win over Everton that extended their lead at the top of the Premier League table to five points.
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Source : 90min