Triple blow leaves four out for Leeds United's hosts Arsenal with Whites 'reunion' in doubt

A triple blow has left four players out for Leeds United’s weekend hosts Arsenal for whom a Whites reunion is in doubt for one of the club’s stars.
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Arsenal’s Europa League round of 16 second leg clash against Sporting Lisbon earlier this month ultimately dealt three blows to the Gunners who lost both William Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu to injuries during the contest before being knocked out on penalties. Mohamed Elneny, meanwhile, had already been ruled out for the rest of the season whilst former Whites loanee Eddie Nketiah is a doubt for this weekend’s visit of the Whites due to an ankle injury.

Tomiyasu was forced off injured after just nine minutes of the 2-2 draw against Lisbon and Saliba joined him in exiting the stage just 12 minutes later. Tomiyasu sustained a significant injury to his right knee and has since been ruled out for the rest of the season despite successful surgery. Saliba, meanwhile, was withdrawn against Lisbon after injuring his back. The defender was then missing for the following weekend’s Premier League fixture at home to Crystal Palace and the 22-year-old was replaced in the France squad for March’s Euro 2024 qualifiers.

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Nketiah, meanwhile, who spent the first half of the 2019-20 Championship season on loan at Leeds, has not featured since injuring his ankle during the first half of the 4-0 win against Premier League visitors Everton at the start of the month. Arteta revealed before the second leg Europa League clash against Lisbon that Nketiah was still in a protective boot and that the striker was still a few weeks away from being fit.

INJURIES: For Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta. Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images.INJURIES: For Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta. Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images.
INJURIES: For Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta. Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images.

"He's getting better," said Arteta at the time, as quoted by football.london. "He’s still in the boot. He’s still a few weeks away and we need to be patient. It was a nasty injury and he has a big challenge ahead of him. Thank God it’s not as bad as it could have been.”

Arsenal’s quartet of injuries is completed by Elneny who played the full duration of January’s FA Cup clash at Oxford United but then suffered what Arsenal described as a “significant injury to his right knee” in a training session. The 30-year-old Egyptian international had successful surgery on the issue in London but the Gunners said in a statement released at the end of January that Elneny would be out for an extended period of time and that a more detailed timescale will be established once the early stages of rehabilitation have been completed. Elneny has not featured since.

Arsenal bounced back from their European exit with a 4-1 victory against Premier League visitors Palace three days later, after which Arteta provided updates on both Saliba and Tomiyasu.

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Asked if Tomiyasu would play again this season, Arteta said as quoted by The Standard: "We don’t know. Obviously the doctor is assessing him. We’ve had one assessment, they need to have another assessment, but it’s not looking good, that’s for sure.

“Looking at Tomi, he’s not someone who exaggerates things. He was really concerned straight away, and we are concerned. We hope Willy is going to be better news but again we have to wait to understand a better picture.

“We have lost players – we lost Gabby (Jesus) for four months, we lost Thomas [Partey] for one and a half months, we lost Alex Zinchenko for one and a half months, we lost [Mohamed] Elneny for six to eight months, now we lost Eddie [Nketiah] and now we lost Tomiyasu and Saliba.

“I will try to look after the players that have to remain with us here and that they come back with the same mindset that they have before so that we can go into Leeds which is the only important game we have right now and try to win that one.”

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