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Arteta provides update after Arsenal star picked up injury against Leicester

By on October 26, 2020

Mikel Arteta has provided an update on David Luiz after the centre-back picked up a muscle injury during Arsenal’s defeat to Leicester City on Sunday.

After a couple of solid outings against Manchester City and Rapid Vienna, Luiz was once again picked to line-up alongside Gabriel in the heart of what was more of a traditional back four last night.

The experienced Brazilian played very well during the opening forty-five minutes as his superb long passing and cross-field balls caused Leicester plenty of problems as Arsenal dominated the first half.

However, Luiz was forced off just four minutes into the second period and had to be replaced by Shkodran Mustafi after appearing to pick-up a thigh muscle injury.

His absence was sorely felt as Arsenal missed his long passes from deep and his replacement – Mustafi – failed to track Jamie Vardy for what turned out to be Leicester’s winning goal in the 80th minute.

Arteta provided an update on Luiz after the game and confirmed the defender suffered a ‘muscle problem’. The 33-year-old will be assessed in the next 48 hours to find out the full extent of the injury.

Arteta told Arsenal.com:

on David Luiz…
I don’t know. We’ve lost a few players in the last week or so. David had a muscular problem and he couldn’t carry on – we’ll have to assess him in the next 48 hours.

Let’s hope the injury doesn’t turn out to be serious as Luiz has actually been playing very well this season and we’re already without a number of centre-backs due to various injury issues.

Pablo Mari is out with an ankle problem, Calum Chambers is still lacking fitness after returning to training following a serious knee injury while Rob Holding has been ruled out for three weeks with a hamstring strain.

Sokratis has been frozen out of the squad by Arteta while the Arsenal boss doesn’t think William Saliba is ready to play for the first team yet so we’re going to have to rely on Mustafi and Gabriel if Luiz is ruled out.

The South American is unlikely to face Dundalk in the Europa League on Thursday night but it remains to be seen whether he’ll be fit for the trip to Manchester United next weekend.