Arsenal outgunned Crystal Palace 5-1 in the Premier League, but at the cost of their best attacker of the season. English winger Bukayo Saka suffered a hamstring injury, his third of the ongoing season. Leandro Trossard was asked to come on 23 minutes after kick off, as Saka went down at the Selhurt Park.
Saka, who has scored five goals and has 10 assists in the Premier League this season, departed midway through the first half and left the stadium on crutches and must now be a serious doubt for the holiday fixtures."He felt something in his hamstring... It's difficult to guess now. They have tested him but difficult to say how bad it is," is all Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta would say after the match.
However, despite Arsenal and Arteta refusing to reveal how bad Saka's condition is, some English media reports claimed it is going to be weeks before the 23-year-old could come back to the pitch. At least four to six weeks is needed for a player to recover from a moderate hamstring injury, effectively ruling out Saka from Arsenal's fixtures against Ipswich Town on December 27, Brentford on January 1 and Brighton on January 4.
The Gunners, who are third in the table behind leaders Liverpool and archrivals Chelsea, are already without Ben White, Raheem Sterling, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Meanwhile, X (formely Twitter) handle @Physioscout, which analyses Premier League player’s injuries, posted on Saka’s condition.
Looks like everything is pointing towards Bukayo Saka being out for a few weeks.
— Physio Scout | Football Injury Analysis (@physioscout) December 23, 2024
In our previous post, we predicted him to be out for 4-6 weeks with a grade 2 hamstring injury.
We're still unsure what classification of the injury it is, or if it is serious at all yet.… https://t.co/BsdO77GN85
"It's extremely hard to predict the time-length of muscle injuries based on video, but the reaction and the use of crutches points towards at least a muscle strain, rather than tightness.
"This is more likely a grade 1/2 hamstring strain... “Would be very unlucky if he suffered a grade 3, but that is more correlated with injuries higher up on the hamstring," the post on the microblogging site said.
Gabriel Jesus to replace Bukayo Saka in Arsenal starting XI?
Should Saka be out for a significant time with a hamstring injury, an in-form Gabriel Jesus will certainly be needed."He has certainly clicked and he needed that to unlock that confidence and belief," Arteta said. "To score five goals in two games is not easy in football."He has done it in a great way so let's continue."
Jesus looks like a man re-born after seemingly forgetting how to score. He fired home after six minutes and smashed his second into the top corner after 14 minutes to restore Arsenal's lead following Ismaila Sarr's leveller.
He almost made it back-to-back hat-tricks when his header hit the post and Kai Havertz followed up to make it 3-1 before halftime and really should have done so when he failed to score from close range in the second half, seconds before Gabriel Martinelli made it 4-1."At one point I was feeling (pressure) but still I never doubted my quality," Jesus told the BBC. "I never doubted I can score goals. Obviously when you are having a bad moment you have to keep your mind strong, and that's what I tried to do."Sometimes I know when I played and leave with a smile on my face everything is different because I am grateful to God, he's great with me and it's impossible to do it without him."
