William Saliba will miss Arsenal’s final game of the season at Southampton after pulling his hamstring against Newcastle on Sunday.
The centre-back was substituted at half-time of the 1-0 win on what was his 51st appearance of the season and his 100th Premier League appearance for the club in total.
“William is going to be out for a few weeks, unfortunately,” manager Mikel Arteta told Premier League World TV on Wednesday.
“He pulled his hamstring against Newcastle, so he’s going to be out for a few weeks.”
“When you talk about those [appearance] numbers, it’s incredible. He’s so much to learn and improve, so we have a player there for many, many years.”
While losing the 23-year-old at this point of the campaign isn’t a major concern for Arsenal – a second place finish will be confirmed so long as we maintain a better goal difference than Manchester City – it does look like France will have to make do without him for their Nations League semi-final with Spain, and the potential final should they progress.
Hamstring injuries have caused the Gunners no end of issues this year, with Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Magalhaes and Kai Havertz all going under the knife to repair tears. Gabriel Martinelli was also sidelined for several weeks.
Arteta also confirmed that Jurrien Timber had undergone surgery to fix an ongoing ankle issue. After 48 appearances for his club this season, he’ll now miss Holland’s World Cup qualifiers with Finland and Malta.
On the full-back’s impact this season, Arteta said: “With Jurrien, you understand that he was coming back from an ACL one year out, and to have this season after an ACL, it’s incredible.
“We didn’t sign a player, we signed a leader, a very, very special character.”
With Gabriel Magalhaes also sidelined, it’s a makeshift back four that will be hoping to keep the clean sheet at Saint Mary’s that ensures goalkeeper David Raya wins the Golden Glove award for the second season in a row.
As things stand, the Spaniard is level on 13 clean sheets with Nottingham Forest’s Matz Sels. Forest play at home to Chelsea.