Arsenal star Riccardo Calafiori came off injured against Shakhtar Donetsk (Picture: Getty)
Riccardo Calafiori’s injury is not as severe as first feared and the Arsenal defender is expected to be absent for ‘no more than a few weeks’.
Arsenal’s 22-year-old summer signing limped off with a knee problem in the second half of the side’s Champions League win over Shakhtar Donetsk, with Myles Lewis-Skelly coming on in his place at the Emirates.
After the 1-0 victory, Mikel Arteta admitted the sight of Calafiori hobbling off the pitch was ‘a bit of a worry’, especially in such an important week, with the Gunners hosting Premier League leaders Liverpool on Sunday.
Given Arsenal are already without the suspended William Saliba, Arteta could be faced with a selection headache at the back, with Jurrien Timber, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney also nursing injuries.
On top of that, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka are still yet to return, though there are hopes the latter could return in time for this weekend’s heavyweight contest at the Emirates.
According to Corriere dello Sport, Arsenal can breathe a sigh of relief surrounding Calafiori’s fitness as the left-back’s medial collateral ligament injury is only a ‘slight problem’ and ‘nothing serious’.
The report claims the Italy international will be sidelined for ‘no more than a few weeks’, meaning he will more than likely be back ahead of Arsenal’s busy winter schedule.
The Italian looks certain to miss Arsenal’s clash with Liverpool (Picture: Getty)
Calafiori was out of action for the best part of a year after injuring the same knee as a youth player at Roma back in October 2018 and there have been fears he may have exacerbated the issue.
After landing awkwardly in Arsenal’s 4-2 defeat of Leicester last month, the full-back was pictured wearing a knee support around the problem area.
Calafiori has made ten appearances in all competitions since joining Arsenal in a £42million summer move from Bologna.
Arteta’s Arsenal host top-of-the-table Liverpool on Sunday (Picture: Getty)
Arteta will likely provide an update on the severity of Calafiori’s injury when he faces the media in the run-up to Sunday’s meeting with Liverpool.
Third-placed Arsenal trail Liverpool by four points in the Premier League table after falling to a 2-0 loss away to Bournemouth last time out – the club’s first defeat of the top-flight campaign.
‘Let’s move on, take that pain we still have in the tummy and use it,’ Arteta told reporters after Arsenal’s setback on the south coast.
‘It puts a bit of perspective into the situation. Obviously we want to win in any context. The reality is that we have made that context very difficult for ourselves.
‘It was very difficult already with the amount of players that we had out and the schedule and the games that we had to play, but that’s the reality.
‘For that game we didn’t get away with it. We could have done and it could have been a very different narrative, but the reality is we didn’t. Another context is that we have lost one game in six months. Now we have to win again.’
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