According to Mikel Arteta, Gabriel Martinelli is expected to sideline for months.
Gabriel Martinelli will not play against Southampton on Thursday after Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta has revealed that the striker will be out with a “months” knee injury
During training, Martinelli suffered a knock, a minor cartilage fracture in his left knee on Sunday, and the Brazilian is set to go through further tests over the next few days.
Arteta said in a press conference on Tuesday: “We had some bad news in training again yesterday. Another player hit the last action he [Martinelli] got and he damaged his knee. The doctors are assessing the severity of the injury but it doesn’t look good at all.
When asked how long the forward would not be available, Arteta said: “We don’t know, but it’s looking for months.”
Arsenal has also confirmed that Bernd Leno is ruled out with a moderate ligament strain for up to six weeks. Defender Pablo Mari will return in two or three months and will not play for the remainder of the campaign. Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Granit Xhaka have returned to regular training.
Leno was stretched off with a knee injury before half-time at the Amex Stadium on Saturday during Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to Brighton.
In the first half, Bernd Leno was stretched off after his collision with Neal Maupay with Brighton
Brighton forward Neal Maupay ran up with the German goalkeeper for an aerial challenge and forced Leno onto the ground. Leno then responded angrily to Maupay as he left the field with support from the medical team at Arsenal.
