CONFIRMED
Bukayo Saka will miss Saturday’s game against Everton and faces further tests, Mikel Arteta confirmed, with the Arsenal manager admitting the signs are “not good”. BBC Sport reports that the club fears its star winger could be out for up to two months, although Arsenal have not confirmed any timeline.
What we know
The damage was done early. Sky Sports reports that Saka went off after about 10 minutes of Arsenal’s 2-2 Champions League draw at Bayern Munich on 22 October with a quadriceps injury. According to the Evening Standard and Sky Sports, he pulled up clutching his left leg after playing a simple pass under no real pressure.
Arteta did not dress it up afterwards. Sky Sports quotes him saying it “doesn’t look good at all” and that the medical staff were “concerned”.
At his pre-Everton press conference on Friday 23 October, Arteta gave more detail, according to a PA report carried by ESPN. Saka had a second MRI that day because there was a lot of fluid in the area, which made the extent of the injury hard to judge. Arteta said the club needed more scans and specialist opinions, and he asked for patience until there is a definitive assessment.
His reasoning for the gloomy outlook was plain, per ESPN: Saka had to walk off the pitch, struggled to walk without pain and had restricted movement. Reuters confirms, via Arteta, that Saka will miss Everton on Saturday 24 October.
What is rumored
The two-month figure comes from BBC Sport, not from Arsenal. That is a strong outlet with a solid record, but the estimate rests on unnamed club medical sources. It is reporting, not a diagnosis.
A more optimistic line has done the rounds too. A Yahoo Sports injury-news roundup claims Saka is out for around a month “barring surprises”. No source is given for that figure, and it sits awkwardly next to both the BBC report and Arteta’s refusal to put a number on anything.
The Independent has done the fixture maths. Assuming the two-month absence, it projects Saka could miss up to nine games, including Newcastle, Dortmund, Manchester City, Brentford, Tottenham and Real Madrid after the November international break. That projection holds only if the BBC’s estimate does.
One claim can be binned. An Evening Standard piece on Yahoo quoted Arteta saying “He trained with us and is available for tomorrow”, which some read as a reference to Saka. Reuters says Saka misses Everton, and The Independent says he did not train on Friday. Arteta gave updates on four players, so the quote may refer to someone else, but that has not been confirmed.
What we don’t know yet
The big one: the actual diagnosis. Arsenal had not confirmed the grade of the injury or a return date as of 23 October. Arteta said more would be known on Saturday, according to ESPN and the Evening Standard, but specialist opinions could take longer.
We also do not know whether surgery is on the table. Nobody has reported that, and it would be wrong to guess.
What it means
Context makes this sting. The BBC reports that Saka’s hamstring surgery after the Crystal Palace match on 21 December 2024 kept him out for 101 days in 2024-25. The Independent says an Achilles problem late last season also affected his World Cup. Arsenal will be careful, and they should be.
Covering for him starts now. The Independent expects Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze to start against Everton, with Christos Tzolis also out. Eze has already shown he can step in: he replaced Saka in Munich and scored Arsenal’s opener, per the Evening Standard and Sky Sports. ESPN adds that Max Dowman could also get a chance.
None of them is Saka, and that is no slight on them. The honest position is the one Arteta took: wait for the scans and treat every timeline until then as a forecast, not a fact.
