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Arsenal boss confirms double injury blow ahead of Southampton clash

By on April 6, 2018

Arsene Wenger has confirmed a double injury blow ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League clash with Southampton at the Emirates this weekend.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan suffered a knee injury during last night’s 4-1 victory over CSKA Moscow in the first leg of our Europa League quarter-final tie.

The Armenian international was forced off midway through the second half and limped down the tunnel after being replaced by Alex Iwobi in the 61st minute.

Wenger says we’ll need to assess the injury further to determine how long Miki will be sidelined for but the attacker is certain to miss the visit of Southampton to north London on Sunday.

David Ospina was expected to keep goal against CSKA last night so it was a surprise when he wasn’t named in the squad when the teams were announced with Petr Cech recalled between the sticks.

It soon emerged that Ospina had picked up an ankle injury ahead of the game and Wenger has now confirmed the Colombian international is facing up to three weeks on the sidelines.

The boss told Arsenal.com:

on the latest on Ospina…
The scan today was reassuring, he will be out for two to three weeks. Yesterday we were scared it was a very serious injury but the scan was reassuring. Yes [he did it in training] – he just moved back from a shot and sprained his ankle, without any contact. It was just a bad movement.

on Mkhitaryan…
He has a knee problem, we don’t know how bad it is, we have to assess it tomorrow morning. He will certainly be out for Sunday.

We’ll have to wait for scan results to come back but let’s hope Mkhitaryan’s injury isn’t serious as it would be a real blow to lose him at this stage of the season.

In his absence, I’d love to see Wenger go with two up front against Southampton with Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leading the line and Mesut Ozil behind.

However, he’ll probably leave Laca on the bench with either Iwobi or Danny Welbeck chosen to start in attack.