MikelArtetaupdated on the fitness of Viktor Gyökeres before the clash with Slavia Praha.
The striker scored the opening goal of the game in a 2-0 victory over **Burnley**on the weekend, but he came off with an injury before the start of the second half. His presence was missed after the break as Mikel Merino filled in as a makeshift striker, and there was not good news about his availability in the pre-match press conference. The offensive department is even more threadbare for Tuesday.
“He’s definitely not available. He hasn't trained today, and we need to do some more tests and scans in the next few days to understand the extent of the injury, but for this game he's not available.
“I am concerned because he hasn't had many muscular issues and he had to leave the pitch and he was feeling something and that’s obviously never a good sign. Especially for a player that is very, very explosive, so we are digging in a little bit more to understand where we are in terms of injury and we will announce it when we know more.
“He was very disappointed after the match with what he felt, but this is part of football. At the end of the day, if you expect a linear line, everything going up, it's not going to happen. If he's got something he's going to have to deal with, we will help him to do that. He was in a really good moment, in a really good form, it's very important for the team. But for tomorrow, we don't have him, so that's it.
“I'll leave that to the doctors; they will explain. I don't want to talk anymore [about it]. We are here to talk about tomorrow's match and the players that are available and we'll see in the next week or so.”