An injury expert has revealed when he expects William Saliba to make his Arsenal return after suffering an injury in their 1-0 defeat to Liverpool.
The 24-year-old limped off in the opening stages of their loss at Anfield last weekend and, as a result, Saliba was omitted from France’s squad for their World Cup qualifiers over the international break.
A statement from the French national team read: “William Saliba, who started for Arsenal against Liverpool on Sunday, was forced off in the fifth minute. He will not be able to honour his call-up for the first training camp of the season. He is suffering from a sprained left ankle.
“After a discussion with Franck Le Gall, the French team doctor, Didier Deschamps confirmed the unavailability of William Saliba. The national coach has decided to call up Benjamin Pavard as a reinforcement.”
More concerning is how long he will be missing for Arsenal, who are already three points adrift of leaders Liverpool in the Premier League title race, but an injury expert has some good news.
Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs, insists that Saliba has a “huge chance” of being available for Arsenal’s match against Manchester City later this month.
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That would mean the only matches Saliba would miss would be their Premier League clash with Nottingham Forest on September 13 and Arsenal’s first Champions League matches of the season against Athletic Bilbao on September 16.
Smith told the Metro: “Everybody at Arsenal will be wiping their brow on that one because of his importance to the team.
“It appeared innocuous. Not to say there aren’t challenges with a ligament sprain but if it were something like a hamstring injury it would be something they would have to be even more careful with.
“With this, they will be able to get that right quite quickly, I would have thought. They will be able to protect it and strap it up if needed and be able to get back out there relatively quickly.
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“It didn’t appear to be a significant sprain, we would expect to see him back out there within two to three weeks.”
When asked about a potential return against Nottingham Forest next week, Smith added: “That one might be really close but they will be pushing him to try and get there.
“It depends on how much swelling was there, how much pain he was in the day after. If swelling was minimal and pain was relatively innocuous that will give him a huge chance.”
