Mikel Arteta issued an injury statement following summer arrival Mikel Merino, who suffered a shoulder injury in his first Arsenal training session.
The Spanish defender moved to north London from Real Sociedad in August after being identified as a key target for the Gunners in the summer transfer window.
After receiving the news that the Euro 2024 winner will be sidelined after suffering a serious injury in training, the club are now looking forward to their debut against Brighton & Hove Albion.
It was later discovered that Merino had broken his shoulder and needed two months to heal. There were reports of a blow to Arsenal, but manager Arteta said the player “does better”. “It’s a slow process because it’s a bone and it takes a long time to heal,” he told reporters ahead of the north London derby.
He is walking again and doing well. He is very busy. We also use this time to make sure he knows a lot and has a lot of questions, so when he comes back he’s ready to go and meet the team.
“Bone healing is very difficult to understand. “I think right now he doesn’t have a lot of symptoms, so you can speed up [his recovery] because he didn’t lose anything, but it’s just a wait and see.”
Arsenal face Tottenham Hotspur in a north London derby on Sunday. Two key centre-backs are likely to be without after Declan Rice’s controversial red card against Brighton and Martin Odegaard picked up a serious injury while on international duty with Norway.
After Fabio Vieira’s loan move to Porto, Thomas Partey and Jorginho Arteta remain the only central midfielders, although Kai Havertz – who started his career at Arsenal before becoming a forward – backtrack if necessary.
