Arsenal Fear Bukayo Saka Could Miss Six Weeks After Bayern Injury

Arsenal fear Bukayo Saka could be out for at least six weeks after hurting his quadriceps in their Champions League game at Bayern Munich.

The 25-year-old will have an MRI scan on Friday afternoon to get a clearer picture of the damage. He had to come off during Wednesday's 2-2 draw at the Allianz Arena. Doctors have found it hard to pin down the problem because of fluid around the muscle, but early checks suggest a six-week lay-off at the very least, and it could be longer.

If that proves right, Saka will miss a run of big games for the Gunners, plus England's coming Nations League matches against Croatia and Spain.

Head coach Mikel Arteta said: "We need a few more scans and opinions from the specialists."

He added: "When a player has to walk off the pitch, he is struggling to walk without any pain, and is restricted to movement; it is not a good sign. Let's be a little bit patient so we can give a definitive assessment."

Arteta also explained why the scan is needed again: "He's got another MRI as there was quite a lot of fluid in the area so it was quite difficult to understand the extent of the injury. We will know more tomorrow."

Saka is already ruled out of Saturday's home league game with Everton. Second-placed Arsenal will be hoping to cut the three-point gap to leaders Manchester City.

This is the latest in a run of fitness worries for the Arsenal academy graduate. His minutes were managed at the end of last season, and again with England at the World Cup, because of an Achilles problem he picked up in March. That injury kept him out of the March international break and seven Arsenal games, but he came back in time to help the club win the Premier League for the first time in 22 years.

He started the Champions League final loss to Paris St-Germain but was taken off after 54 minutes. At the World Cup he started only three of England's eight games, though he did score a hat-trick in the 6-4 win over France in the third-place match.

Saka also had surgery on a hamstring injury from December 2024, which sidelined him for 101 days in the 2024-25 season. Last term he still played 49 games as Arsenal took the title, even though his season kept stopping and starting. Besides the Achilles trouble, he pulled out of a January game against Leeds with a hip problem in the warm-up, and another hamstring issue kept him out for around four weeks.

His durability is now being questioned. Arteta has admitted that Saka's robustness and availability have "certainly been different in the last year or so".

The timing hurts, as Saka had been moving into more goalscoring spots and has four goals in 11 games this season. Arsenal also failed to land a top forward in the summer, missing out on Vinicius Jr and Julian Alvarez. 

They did sign Greece international Christos Tzolis, but he is injured too. That leaves Noni Madueke, Eberechi Eze and 16-year-old Max Dowman as the other wide options. Dowman has played few minutes so far, but Arteta has spoken warmly about his talent and his ability to change games.