Arsenal's Mariona Caldentey to miss up to 10 weeks with hamstring injury
Arsenal midfielder Mariona Caldentey is expected to miss about two months of Women's Super League action after suffering a hamstring injury during Arsenal's 4-2 defeat at Manchester City on 4 October. Arsenal manager Renee Slegers said the absence is estimated at between eight to 10 weeks.
Caldentey was part of the Spain squad who won the 2023 Women's World Cup. She joined Arsenal from Barcelona two years ago and has been a key player for the club. Caldentey was named the 2024-25 WSL Player of the Year.
Slegers provided the initial assessment of the injury, saying: "Mariona [Caldentey] went off against Manchester City and didn't go away with Spain. It's a hamstring injury so she will be out for a while." She added: "It's a bigger hamstring injury. The estimation right now is between eight to 10 weeks. We'll see." "We're re-scanning and the healing process looks good. Of course, we're hoping for less [time out], but it's a bigger hamstring injury," Slegers said.
Caldentey's absence was described in the report as a blow to Arsenal. The Gunners have won just one of their opening five WSL matches and sit 10th in the table. That start has prompted questions over Slegers' position.
Slegers also outlined the situation with summer signing Selina Cerci, saying: "Selina had surgery on her knee. She had been struggling and it got worse, so we had to intervene unfortunately." She added: "She's out as well for a while. It's one of the reasons why it was harder for Selina to get into the team because she missed some parts of pre-season." "She has been available and has trained the majority of sessions, but of course it affects the player when you're managing something." "Germany did a scan and the best solution going forward was to clean [the knee] up with surgery," Slegers said.
Arsenal return to WSL action on Saturday when they host Birmingham City (12:45 BST) and will be without Caldentey, injured England forward Chloe Kelly and Selina Cerci for that match.
