Arteta concerned about Saka’s durability as thigh issue may keep him out for up to six weeks
Mikel Arteta said on 23 October 2026 that he is worried about Bukayo Saka’s durability after the 25-year-old limped off in Arsenal’s 2-2 Champions League draw with Bayern Munich and will undergo an MRI, with the club fearing a possible grade-two tear that could keep him sidelined for up to six weeks.
Saka has suffered a series of injuries in the past year and a half, missing a large portion of last season with hamstring, hip and Achilles problems and also being sidelined by another hamstring issue in 2024-25. In total, Arteta’s side say Saka has had 11 different injuries since September 2023. Between 2021 and 2024 he missed only three Premier League matches and set an Arsenal record by playing 83 consecutive top-flight games; he is approaching 300 appearances for the club he joined as a seven-year-old and signed a lucrative new contract in February that made him one of the highest-paid players in the club’s history.
Arsenal confirmed Saka will have an MRI after he limped off in the 2-2 draw and Arteta said there was “quite a lot of fluid in the area so it was difficult to understand the extent of the injury”. The manager said Saka will definitely miss Saturday’s game against Everton and that club sources fear the problem could be a grade-two tear able to keep him out for up to six weeks.
On managing Saka’s minutes, Arteta said: “We need to understand how to manage his load.” He added: “It’s certainly been different in the last year or so. The demands that we are putting on every player are immense. The amount of games, the intensity of those matches, the international competitions, the times as well between games are getting narrower. "Bukayo against Lille [in the Champions League last week] didn’t start the game because we knew what was happening. We have to play three times in less than six days. And especially when the games are so demanding, until the last minute you are there, you are chasing the game, you want to win. The necessity is to win every game, so we know that. So we are preparing the players for those scenarios and we do the best that we possibly can.”
Arteta addressed suggestions that Saka’s limited time off after the World Cup may have contributed, saying the forward “had only three weeks off after the World Cup” and adding: “We want to pick on something, we will find it, but we won’t know whether it is for that or not. Maybe we needed to load those tendons more during those three weeks? Because if you don’t load the tendons, it becomes a problem. Who knows? I don’t know.”
Saka’s absence opens the door for 16-year-old Max Dowman to feature against Everton; Arteta said Dowman “could play against Everton on Saturday.” The teenager has logged nine minutes in the league this season and became the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history when he scored against David Moyes’s side in March. On Dowman, Arteta said: “There is something inevitable to go back to that memory and the feeling of the moment. That’s with us, that’s going to stay in that stadium for a long, long time. He’s training and every time he’s got a moment to play, he’s showing that he’s a player that is going to impact the game. For sure he’s going to have minutes.”
Saka will not be available for Saturday’s match with Everton and Arsenal are awaiting the MRI result to confirm the severity of the thigh issue; in the meantime Dowman is expected to receive playing time in the short term.