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This is why Arsenal added Noni Madueke

The Saka injury presents an opportunity for the frustrating winger to show that he can provide an impact

Scott Willis's avatar
Scott Willis
Oct 22, 2026
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Arsenal suffered a blow Wednesday, when Bukayo Saka left the match against Bayern Munich early in the first half. He felt a sharp pain in his quad/thigh area and couldn’t continue. Mikel Arteta didn’t give us any comfort with his comments after the match saying, “It does not look good at all. They [Arsenal medical team] are a bit concerned. A player who has to come off with a really sharp pain is never good news but we have to wait and see.”

There has been frustration and worry about Saka this season; I think that most of it has been misplaced and overblown but it has still been there in the fan base. Now that Saka is looking at at least a few weeks and potentially a couple of months out, the realization of what it means for Arsenal to play without him is hitting people. I guess there is nothing like an absence to get people to reevaluate a player’s true impact.

It is still very early so we don’t have a good estimate for the time that he will miss. I think optimistically it would be 3-4 weeks and a more worse case might be more like 8-12 weeks. Here is what the next 2 months look like for Arsenal for what they will face over this time.

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