Mikel Arteta has confirmed midfielder Thomas Partey suffered a muscle injury in Arsenal's 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon, but is unsure how long the Ghanian will be kept out of action.
The 27-year-old went down on 74 minutes and was unable to continue, forcing Arteta to bring on winger Willian in his place. He looked in some severe discomfort as he left the field and it appears that fears of an injury have been confirmed.
Speaking after the loss at Villa Park, Arteta stated that Partey was substituted due to a 'muscular injury' and 'could not carry on playing', as Arsenal now wait to understand the severity of the blow.
“He had a muscular injury so we had to take him off," the Arsenal boss said. "He could not carry on playing. I don't know (how bad it is).
"We will see the extent of the injury. He wasn't feeling well enough to continue playing so we had to take him off."
Injuries have hampered Partey's season. He was sidelined with a hip problem for six weeks around the Christmas period and was slowly reintroduced back into the side in the middle of January. He had just started to pick up some steam before this latest setback.
Arsenal will miss their big-money summer signing in the coming weeks, as their fixture list reads particularly unkindly. The Gunners must tackle Benfica in the Europa League, while they also host Manchester City and north London rivals Tottenham over the next month.
Those contests will be all the more tricky without Partey. Arteta looked to have turned Arsenal's season around in recent weeks, but back to back defeats to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa have slowed their advances up the table once again.
They currently lie in tenth position, but could slip into the bottom half of the table depending on other results around the country.
Source : 90min