Noni Madueke's Arsenal injury layoff revealed as Mikel Arteta laments 'big miss'

Mikel Arteta has admitted Noni Madueke will be a “big miss” for Arsenal after the England winger was ruled out for at least six weeks. Madueke hurt his right knee during Sunday’s draw with Manchester City and scans have revealed he now faces an injury lay-off.

It could also rule Madueke out of the next two England camps and is a serious blow for the £52m winger who has been such a big hit since his move from Chelsea to Arsenal.

Madueke is expected to be out for between six to eight weeks but Arteta says a more accurate timescale might not be known until next week.

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Gunners boss Arteta said: “Yeah, he’s going to be out for a few weeks. We don't really know yet, probably we're going to have to do a scan next week again. He felt something at the beginning of the match, he tried to carry on and half-time he was too sore, so that's it.

“As I said, we need to scan him again to see the real extent of the injury, but it doesn't look too bad. Yeah, he was gutted, obviously. Very disappointing to see him because he was in such a good state.

“He looked a real threat. He was getting some consistency, some flow now into the team, and he looked like a real threat, so it's a big miss for us.”

Arsenal’s new defender Piero Hincapié is also missing from the squad to face Port Vale in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.

Arteta expects that to be a short term lay-off while Martin Odegaard also hopes to return to face Newcastle next Sunday.

Arsenal are expected to make plenty of changes for the trip to Port Vale with back-up keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga ready to play.

There could also be an outing for 15-year-old Max Dowman with Arteta insisting they are both ready for their chance. But Arteta did urge some caution around Dowman yet suggested they have every base covered.

When asked about Arrizabalaga, Arteta added: “For sure, Kepa is one of them who is ready to play. His attitude, the way he supports in his role and does everything in the best possible manner.

“First of all, preparing and having a very good understanding of Max’s new situation and all the things that are different in his life. So we need to change his times, we need to change his education, probably his allocation and where he is with his family.

“His diet is different, his sleep patterns become different, the training load is different, the amount of information, pressure exposure is different.

“So we have to manage a lot of factors. Into that a lot of factors you add a lot of minutes with very different teams as well. We need to be cautious and very, very careful.

“And that's what we are trying to do in the best possible way, to find that balance, to keep Max as connected as possible with the first team, because he's undoubtedly a player that can help the first team.

“But that's why we need the right mixture of minutes, like he did the other day with the [Under-21s] and with England, to have that exposure when he needs to play with us, he's ready to do that.”

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