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Injury blow: Arsenal star set to miss crucial Liverpool & Chelsea games
Arsene Wenger has confirmed Olivier Giroud is set to miss crucial games with Liverpool and Chelsea after suffering a hamstring injury last night.
Giroud started during Arsenal’s Carabao Cup quarter final win over West Ham at the Emirates on Tuesday night but pulled up holding his thigh midway through the second half.
The French international was replaced by Reiss Nelson in the 78th minute and looked to be in severe pain as he limped off, so it looked like the striker was facing a spell on the sidelines.
Unfortunately Wenger confirmed to reporters after the game that Giroud has suffered a hamstring injury and the initial fear is it’s fairly serious as Giroud has voiced his discomfort.
The boss says he’ll have a scan on Thursday to further assess the injury but the striker is expected to be out for three weeks meaning he’ll be ruled out for the entire Christmas and New Year fixtures.
Wenger told the Mirror:
“Hamstring, normally 21 days,”
“It looks like he (Giroud) is out for Christmas. We will normally do a scan 48 hours after – Thursday – then we will have an idea of the grade.
“When you hear him the pain is quite big but the grade is not always linked with the pain.”
We’ll have to wait for the scan results to come back but if Giroud is out for three weeks then he’ll miss Friday’s clash with Liverpool as well as further games with Crystal Palace, West Brom, Chelsea and Nottingham Forest [FA Cup].
Giroud isn’t a regular starter in the league but he’s still a vital player to have in the squad as he scored regularly off the bench and is a very useful weapon to have so it’s a big blow he’s picked up this injury at such a crucial time of year.