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Arsenal face new injury scare as Tomiyasu picks up muscle issue

By Ritayan Chatterjee on November 4, 2022

Arsenal have been struggling with their injury issues since the early stages of this campaign and it was thought that Mikel Arteta was finally about to get the majority of his first-team players fit and ready ahead of Thursday’s Europa League clash against FC Zurich.

However, following the conclusion of last night’s fixture, it appears the Gunners have suffered a fresh injury set-back as Takehiro Tomiyasu sustained a hamstring issue.

Mikel Arteta’s side came away with a narrow 1-0 victory and secured their place in the Europa League’s round of 16 stage, but the injury to the Japan international could be a big blow.

The former Bologna man started among the substitutes last night and was introduced around the 73-minute mark, replacing Ben White but had to be taken off during the final few moments of the game.

Speaking to BT Sport (via Football.london), Mikel Arteta confirmed that Tomiyasu has sustained a muscle issue and the defender needs to be assessed for the next 48 hours before knowing the severity of his problem.

Tomiyasu suffers a new injury

Arteta said:

“He had some muscular issue so we will assess him in the next 48 hours and see what happens.”

Tomiyasu couldn’t feature during the early stages of this campaign due to his injury issues, however, since his return to full fitness, Arteta had been starting him almost every game before last night.

The demand of the fixture schedule might have been too much for him – as Tomiyasu struggled with muscle issues last season as well. So, perhaps Arteta should have managed his game time more carefully.

Nevertheless, The Emirates faithful will now be hoping that the defender’s injury won’t be anything serious and he will be able to recover as quickly as possible. Tomiyasu is now a major doubt for Arsenal’s trip to Chelsea on Sunday lunchtime and we may not see him feature in any of the remaining three games before the World Cup break.

This could give Kieran Tierney more first-team opportunities to regain his place in the starting line-up, although Oleksandr Zinchenko was back on the bench last night after recovering from a calf injury.