Arsenal midfielder facing 'injury setback' at the Emirates

Arsenal attacker Emile Smith Rowe will find his recent setback “really hard to take”, according to transfer insider Dean Jones.

That’s because Jones reckons the boyhood Gunners supporter was on the verge of getting his chance under Mikel Arteta following a frustrating start to the campaign.

The 22-year-old made his fourth appearance off the bench this season against Manchester United on Sunday, although he wasn’t able to prevent Arsenal from dropping their first points in 2022-2023.

And things went from bad to worse for Smith Rowe after the game at Old Trafford after he suffered an injury in the warm-down, which he wasn’t able to complete.

According to The Athletic, the England international appeared to ‘pull up’ and looked ‘distressed’ as he was helped off the pitch by Carlos Cuesta, the club’s assistant manager.

It’s been a testing opening month of the season for Smith Rowe, who’s yet to start a game and has been restricted to less than 50 minutes in the top-flight due to the form of Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka.

Smith Rowe would have been hoping to make his first start in Thursday’s Europa League clash with FC Zurich, but even that could now be in doubt following this setback.

He told GIVEMESPORT: “For Smith Rowe himself, any layoff at this point will be really, really hard to take, because he’s been knocking on the door, waiting for his opportunity and this is just going to be a setback which means it’s not coming for a while.”

It’s not yet clear how long Smith Rowe will be sidelined for, but if the Gunners do get some bad news in the coming days, it would have come at the worst possible time.

That’s because Thursday’s trip to Switzerland starts a run of 15 games in less than two months, with Mikel Arteta