Arsenal could be without Kai Havertz for a significant amount of time after the young forward suffered a setback during a training session in Dubai.
The club, which is currently on a mid-season training break in the United Arab Emirates, will put Havertz through a batter of tests on his injured hamstring over the next 24 hours to determine the full extent of the injury. Sources believe that he will miss a long period of time regardless, and could be at risk of being sidelined for the remainder of the season.
The Gunners are already without Gabriel Jesus who underwent season ending knee surgery, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli. Now if Havertz is also unavailable, that would deal a serious blow to Arsenal’s offensive attack. The injury is nothing that could have been planned for, however it does renew discussions about the club’s decision to not sign another striker during the January transfer window.
Havertz was the Gunners top scorer this season with 15 goals across all campaigns. Now with the 25 year old likely lost for the duration of the Premier League campaign, Mikel Arteta’s side will need to get creative down the stretch to manufacture offence.
Arsenal now have only three healthy forwards remaining on the roster between Leandro Trossard, Raheem Sterling and Ethan Nwaneri, though all of them would likely be forced to play out of their natural positions. Academy product Nathan Butler-Oyedeji could be an option, however, Arteta has previously stated that Nwaneri – a 17-year-old who has scored seven goals thus far– may be his preferred choice.
“I think he can develop into a No 9,” Arteta said back in December. “He has got the goal in front of him and he looks at the goal and he has a tremendous ability to put the ball in the back of the net.”
Currently sporting a 14-8-2 record through 24 games, Arsenal sit 6 points back of Liverpool for top spot in the Premier League. However, with the club’s decision to not reinforce their forward group during the latest transfer window, and now Havertz’s setback, they certainly face an uphill climb in the back half of the season if they want to catch the Reds.
The Gunners are next in action on Saturday February 15th against Leicester City.
Photo: Steffen Prößdorf. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.