William Saliba faces around month on the sidelines after scans seem to confirm a Grade 2 ankle sprain sustained before Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat at Anfield.
The French defender twisted his left ankle in the warm-up against Liverpool, tried to declare himself fit, but lasted fewer than five minutes before being forced off after challenging with Hugo Ekitike.
He was replaced by summer signing Cristhian Mosquera, who made his Premier League debut in testing circumstances and performed very well.
Mikel Arteta admitted that Saliba wanted to start but couldn’t shake the problem. “He twisted his ankle during the warm-up, and he came in and he said he believed that he could carry on and play, but straight away in the first two actions I could see that he couldn’t cope, and we had to get him out unfortunately,” the manager said.
“When he cannot play in a game of that stature, there is clearly something wrong.”
According to reports in France, the Grade 2 diagnosis will rule Saliba out of France’s October internationals.
If that’s the case, it would also mean he will miss Arsenal’s matches against Nottingham Forest, Athletic Club, Manchester City, Port Vale, Newcastle, Olympiacos and West Ham that come before the next break.
The report, that was across multiple French publications on Sunday morning, simply said, “This is another blow for the French team and Didier Deschamps. Already absent from the current gathering, William Saliba is also expected to miss the next one, in October. The Arsenal defender should thus be absent between three and four weeks.”