Mikel Arteta: Injuries are ‘accident waiting to happen’ due to player workload
Mikel Arteta said long-term injuries are “an accident waiting to happen” due to the workload players face after Kai Havertz this week joined Arsenal’s lengthy list of absentees.
Germany forward Havertz has been ruled out for the rest of the season after it was confirmed on Thursday he would need surgery to repair the hamstring injury he suffered during Arsenal’s training camp in Dubai last week.
Havertz’s injury, sustained when he stretched to block a shot, means the Gunners are now without a recognised striker after Gabriel Jesus ruptured his ACL last month, and leaves Arteta with a host of senior players in the treatment room.
As well as Havertz and Jesus, Arsenal will be without Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu for Saturday’s Premier League trip to Leicester.
“We were having a great Dubai camp and then the injury happened in an unexpected way and it’s a big blow because of the injuries we have,” Arteta said on Friday.
“We’ve had players who are injured who’ve played 130 games in the last two seasons so it’s an accident waiting to happen when you continue to load, load and load.
“The intensity is at a different level and the demands in terms of minutes in this competitive environment is getting higher and higher and it’s a consequence of that. The amount of muscle and tendon injuries is higher than ever so there’s a relationship.
“We’re very limited and we’re training less than ever. There’s no time for training.
“The biggest problem is that you don’t train the muscle, the muscle is undertrained and then you expose the muscle and the tendon to an exposure that it can’t absorb because the tendon has 72 hours to recover.”
Arsenal will have to look to the likes of Raheem Sterling, Ethan