Arteta provides update on Saka, Odegaard and White

Mikel Arteta has given an update on the fitness of Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and a number of key players ahead of our trip to Liverpool this Sunday.

Bukayo and Martin were both substituted in our 5-0 victory over Leeds United last weekend, and Mikel revealed the status of the pair going into the match at Anfield.

"Bukayo is doing better, but he will be out for a few weeks, unfortunately," the boss said at the Sobha Realty Training Centre.

"No surgery, it's not as bad as the previous one. Very unfortunate to pick it up because it’s on the other side. It's an action that requires full power from him. Then, he clashed with the opponent; he needed to change pace again, and he felt something. So he will be out for a couple of weeks."

On Martin's injury, he added: "We don't know yet. He hasn't trained yet, and if he does, it will be tomorrow. He's doing everything he can, we're doing everything that we can to make him available, but we'll have to wait and see tomorrow."

It was announced this week that Kai Havertz had undergone knee surgery following an injury the German international picked up in our win over Manchester United.

"I think it will be weeks, but I don't know how many months," Mikel said on Kai's setback. "Very unfortunate, very sad for him. He did tremendously well to recover from the previous one; he’d never had an injury before, and suddenly this happens. But this is our profession, our football, we need to live with that.

"We lost another big player for many, many weeks, but it [surgery] was the right thing to do. The doctors advised and I think he was very convinced at the end that it was the quickest and the best way to resolve that issue."

Ben White and Christian Norgaard both missed the Leeds victory entirely through injury. Mikel is hopeful the pair will be available for our trip to Merseyside.

He said: "That's another two that we don't know yet. Again, tomorrow we have another day, let's see how they evolve, and there’s a chance to keep them involved in the game."

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