Arteta backs Dowman as Saka faces eight-week injury layoff

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 24 Oct, 04:20 · Archive

Bukayo Saka faces up to eight weeks out with a quad injury sustained against Bayern Munich, with teenager Max Dowman to step in.

Bukayo Saka sustained a quad injury in Arsenal's Champions League match against Bayern Munich and is expected to be sidelined for up to eight weeks. The injury comes at a difficult time for the club, who will need to adjust their approach for upcoming fixtures including a Premier League visit from Everton on Saturday.

Mikel Arteta has responded by expressing confidence in teenager Max Dowman to fill the gap. The 16-year-old is likely to start Arsenal's Carabao Cup tie against Fleetwood on Tuesday and is pushing for more Premier League involvement. Dowman has played only nine minutes in the league this season.

Arteta said of the prospect of Dowman getting regular first-team action: 'He needs more minutes to do that. It's a lot to ask him to provide when he does not have a lot of minutes. It's very difficult, probably unfair. But the moment that he starts to have more minutes and games I think he's going to be able to do that because historically that's what he's done.' Dowman came off the bench last season to score against Everton and became the youngest scorer in Premier League history.

How it is being reported

• Arsenal news: £50million wonderkid wows scouts as Cristiano Ronaldo heir on radarMikel Arteta has already got some top talent joining him at Arsenal but transfer talk hasn't slowed downMirror Sport · 24 Oct, 04:00
• Mikel Arteta backs Arsenal star to hit 'another dimension' amid Bukayo Saka injury concernYoung prodigy could get game in place of star manEvening Standard · 23 Oct, 22:30

In this story: Bukayo Saka · Max Dowman · Mikel Arteta · Arsenal · Bayern Munich · Everton · Fleetwood

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