Arteta gives injury update on Arsenal 22yo

Cristhian Mosquera was forced off during Arsenal’s match against Aston Villa last week, appearing to clutch at the middle of his hamstring as he initially sat on the ground.

At the time, Mikel Arteta told the media: “He is fine, but he was feeling like he was about to have something.”

But Mosquera then missed Arsenal’s game against Chelsea at the weekend, with Ezri Konsa stepping in to make his full debut for the Gunners. The absence raised concerns that perhaps the injury was more serious than initially believed.

Arteta played down those fears in his post-match press conference, but he did confirm that Mosquera has been dealing with a muscle problem.

“He had a muscular issue, and we think it’s not too much,” Arteta said. “But we need to wait and see the next few days for how it evolves.”

If the injury news a few more days of assessment, that makes Mosquera’s participation against Napoli on Wednesday a serious doubt. Perhaps a return against Sunderland on Saturday is a more realistic prospect.

The good news is that Konsa impressed on his debut against Chelsea, with one particularly crowd-stirring challenge on former teammate Morgan Rogers.

Konsa is only recently back from his holidays, so Arteta won’t want to overload him. But assuming the defender is physically capable of making another start on Wednesday, there will be few doubts about his technical ability to perform.