Mikel Arteta has described Kai Havertz‘s hamstring injury as “an accident waiting to happen” and issued a rallying cry to his players to show “what you’re made of” in his absence.
The 25-year-old will undergo surgery and miss the rest of the season after sustaining the problem while defending a set-piece during the club’s winter training break in Dubai earlier this week.
Arsenal are now without a recognised No. 9 with Gabriel Jesus also sidelined until next season following knee surgery, while their attacking options are further depleted by injuries to Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli.
The north London side opted not to sign a forward in January after having a £40million ($50.3m) bid for Ollie Watkins rejected by Aston Villa, although Arteta refused to rule out the possibility of signing a free agent to help support Leandro Trossard, who is now likely to lead their forward line against Leicester City on Saturday.
“We were having a great camp in Dubai, recharging, training, having some time off and connecting again with nature and a different environment and then the injury happened in a very unexpected way, certainly,” Arteta said.
“So it’s a big blow, obviously, because of the injuries that we have. But fortunately, we’ve been through a lot this season. We have played without Gabriel Magalhães, without William Saliba, without Ben White all season, Takehiro Tomiyasu all season, [Riccardo] Calafiori two months, [Mikel] Merino two months, Martin Ødegaard two months, Bukayo Saka three months, Gabriel Jesus, all of them. So that’s it. That’s the challenge ahead.
“Love it and look forward because we are still where we are with all the things that I mentioned on top of playing four times with 10 men, blah, blah, blah. So let’s see what the team is made of.”
Pushed on the impact the schedule is having on injuries, Arteta said: “The evidence we can provide is very limited in many aspects and every case is very different. Obviously some of them we know are based on load and minutes, it is inevitable.
“We have players who have been injured who have played 130 games in the past two seasons. So at the end, it is an accident waiting to happen. If you continue to load and load and load. This season, is it the accumulation of that? Is the stress of that? Is it luck? Is it preparation? Is it methodology? There are a lot of factors.
“It is very difficult to point at something but the schedule is super demanding. For certain players, especially the explosive players, it becomes a real issue.
“We train less than ever. You see our data, we train less than ever. It is normal. There is no time for training. We talk about training only what happens on the grass.
“The biggest problem is that you don’t train the muscle. That’s the problem. So the muscle is undertrained. And then you expose the muscle and the tendon to an exposure that they cannot absorb because the tendon needs 72 hours to recover.
“So a lot of people talk about what we are doing outside, it is inside, when you have to load the muscle for two, three, six, eight weeks. You haven’t trained it, the risk of injury is much bigger.
“One because the muscle and the tendon has not recovered and then is not prepared to absorb the load and stress you are going to put it under every three days.”
Although the transfer window is closed, clubs can still sign unattached players and Arteta left the door open to a possible move. Former Chelsea striker Diego Costa, ex-Real Madrid and Sevilla striker Mariano Diaz and Carlos Vela — who joined Arsenal in 2005 before leaving in 2012 — are among the forwards on the free agent list.
“We explore every possible situation and make a decision from there,” Arteta said.