Arteta On Arsenal's Storm Of Injury: It Was An Accident That Was Just A Matter Of Time

JAKARTA - Mikel Arteta described Kai Havertz's hamstring injury as an accident waiting to happen.

He then called on his players to show his verbal ability when the attacker was absent.

The 25-year-old will undergo surgery and be out for the remainder of the season after getting into trouble defending from the dead ball during the club's winter break in Dubai earlier this week.

Arsenal now have no player number 9 because Gabriel Jesus has also been absent until next season after knee surgery.

Meanwhile, the chances of other attackers are decreasing due to injuries suffered by Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli.

The north London club chose not to sign an attacker on the January 2025 exchange after a 40 million offer forten Watkins was rejected by Aston Villa.

However, Arteta declined to rule out the possibility of signing a free agent to help support Leandro Trossard, who is likely to lead the front line against Leicester City on Saturday, February 15, 2025.

"We had a great camp in Dubai, recharged, trained, rested for a moment and reunited with nature and a different environment."

"Then, the injury happened in a very unexpected way, of course. So, this is a crushing blow, of course, because of the injury we suffered."

"However, fortunately we have gone through a lot of things this season. We have played without Gabriel Magalhaes, without William Saliba, without Ben White throughout the season."

"Takehiro Tomiyasu is absent throughout the season, (Riccardo) a two-month Calafiori, (Mikel) Merino two months, Martin Odegaard two months, Bukayo Saka three months, Gabriel Jesus, everyone. So that's how it is. That's the challenge going forward."

"We are happy and looking forward to it because we are still in our place now with all the things I mentioned above, playing four times with 10 players, bla, bla, bla. So, let's see what this team looks like," said Arteta.

The Spaniard did not deny that a busy schedule was one of the factors that gave birth to an injury storm.

"The evidence we can provide is very limited in many aspects and each case is very different."

"Obviously some of them we know based on the load and minutes of play, it's inevitable."

"We have injured players and have played 130 games in the last two seasons."

"So, in the end, it was an accident waiting to happen, if you're constantly practicing, practicing, and practicing."

"This season, is it an accumulation of it? Is it stress? Is it luck? Is that preparation? Is that a methodology? There are many factors," said the coach.

A minimal rest time with a tight match agenda makes the players' muscles work, according to Arteta, to be very hard without getting enough rest.

"It's very difficult to point out something, but the schedule is very demanding. For certain players, especially explosive players, it's a real problem."

"We practiced less than before. You look at our data, we practiced less than before. That's normal."

"There's no time to practice. We're just talking about the practice going on on the grass court."

"The biggest problem is that you don't train the muscles. That's the problem. So, the muscles are not trained."

"Then, you expose muscles and tendons to exposure they can't absorb because tendon takes 72 hours to recover."

"So, a lot of people talk about what's outside, but it's inside. When you have to weigh on the muscles for two, three, six, eight weeks, you haven't trained it, the risk of injury is much greater."

"One of them is because muscles and tendons have not recovered and then are not ready to absorb the load and pressure you will give every three days," said Arteta again.