Arsenal Faces Saka Absence but Konsa Returns for Hull Match
Arsenal will have to navigate the next stretch of their season without Bukayo Saka, with Mikel Arteta confirming the winger faces “weeks” on the sidelines – but there is better news over Ezri Konsa ahead of Hull’s visit to north London on Saturday.
Saka has not featured since hobbling off early with a quad problem in last month’s Champions League showdown against Bayern Munich, an injury that initially carried an eight-week fear. The real concern came later. A build-up of fluid around the affected area delayed follow-up scans and clouded the timeline, leaving Arsenal to wait and hope.
That wait is over, but the outcome is harsh.
“We’re talking about weeks,” Arteta said, accepting the scale of the setback. The plan now is clear: get Saka through the upcoming November international break, then push. “After the international break, he’s going to start hitting the pitch and start to have more activity, see how he feels. Unfortunately, he’s going to be out for a while.”
For a side built so heavily around Saka’s creativity, durability and relentlessness, it is a jolt. Arsenal have grown used to him being ever-present, the constant on the right who rarely asks for a rest and rarely needs one. Now they must improvise.
If that update drags the mood down, Konsa’s situation lifts it again.
The defender was withdrawn just after the hour mark in midweek against Slavia Prague in the Champions League, raising alarms given how central he has become to Arsenal’s defensive structure alongside Gabriel. Arteta admitted post-match that the summer signing “had some issues”, prompting his substitution for Cristhian Mosquera, and highlighted the sheer volume of minutes Konsa has logged in recent weeks.
The worry, though, has eased quickly.
“Yeah, he’s fine,” Arteta said. “He was feeling much better today. We took him out for a precaution and for the amount of minutes that he was playing. But yesterday and today he’s feeling good.”
Konsa trained on Friday and is in contention to start against Hull. His fitness is timely, not just for Arsenal but for England as well. The centre-back has been named in the latest national squad, joining club team-mates Ben White, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze. Noni Madueke, by contrast, misses out this time.
While Saka steps back, another pillar of Arsenal’s future is edging forward again.
William Saliba returned to a matchday squad for the first time this season in Prague, a significant milestone after a long rehabilitation from a back injury. He has not played since France’s World Cup semi-final defeat by Spain in July, a gap that has forced both club and country to tread carefully.
He stayed on the bench against Slavia, with Arsenal determined not to rush a defender whose physical profile demands careful management. Yet his presence alone hints at what might come next. Saliba could see his first minutes of the campaign this weekend and, if all goes well, push his way back into the France squad for Nations League fixtures against Italy and Turkey.
“We’ve been in very close contact [with France],” Arteta said. “They have all the information. Now it’s about them. Whatever is decided, it’s fine for us.”
So Arsenal move into the Hull game with their star winger ruled out for the medium term, their new defensive mainstay cleared to continue, and their long-lost centre-half finally back in the frame. The squad is bending under the strain of a brutal schedule, but not yet breaking – and how Arteta balances those competing storylines in the coming weeks may define the shape of their season.
