Arsenal have ruled Granit Xhaka out for three months, but he’ll want to be back in two, according to manager Mikel Arteta.

Arsenal recently confirmed that Xhaka has a significant injury to his medial knee ligament. After specialist consultation, they determined he doesn’t require surgery, but he will need a three-month rehabilitation period.

Speaking to the press on Thursday, Mikel Arteta admitted that if you tell Xhaka he’ll need three months out, the midfielder will be aiming to return in two. But he added that Arsenal won’t want to rush things, and they have to do things by the book.

“Granit is progressing really well but obviously we know it is a long-term injury unfortunately and he’s not going to be available [on Monday night],” Arteta began.

“With Granit, I don’t know, but I’m sure that if you tell him three [months], he will be thinking two. He will be trying to do extra work to try to minimise that time, that’s for sure.

“We have to do it in the right way because it’s a significant injury and we want to have him back properly when he can.”

David Ornstein recently reported for The Athletic that the public are likely to get an inside look at Xhaka’s recovery, as he’s agreed to let the Amazon Prime cameras dedicate time to covering the process.

There are no guarantees much or any of it will make it into the documentary, but they’ve already been capturing footage.

Ornstein adds that there’s optimism at Arsenal that Xhaka will return as quickly as possible, given his reputation around the club as being a model professional on the training pitches.

Arteta’s quotes certainly tie in with that belief, so we’ll see if the Swiss international can make it back ahead of schedule.

Arsenal’s initial assessment would have put Xhaka out until around December 29th. Anything earlier than that would be a bonus.