Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Gabriel Jesus will be sidelined for a period following surgery on his knee, and explained the club’s decision over the striker.
Jesus missed an extended period last season after initially injuring his knee at the World Cup, and returned in March after surgery sidelined him for over three months.
This previous injury has now flared up, and Arteta confirmed that the club made the decision to protect his fitness with a small procedure.
“Unfortunately, he has had a little procedure this morning, he had some discomfort in his knee that has been causing some issues and they had to go in and resolve it. It’s not something major, but he’s going to be out for a few weeks I think,” he stated after Arsenal’s draw with Monaco.
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“It’s a big blow because we had him back to his best, especially with the way he played against Barcelona, and he was in good condition, and we’ve lost him.
“He’s been feeling some discomfort in the last few weeks, we had to look at it and we had to make a decision and the best one is to protect the player and get him back as quickly as possible, so we decided to do it.
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“It’s something related to the previous injury that he had and the surgery. He had some irritation in the knee and we had to get it resolved.”
How long could Jesus be out for?
Arteta has stated that it will be “a few weeks,” and going off the assumption that his surgery was to simply fix a small issue, it may be hoped that he can return without missing too many matches.
If he is injured for the whole of August, the 26-year-old will miss matches against:
Manchester City (N)
Nottingham Forest (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Fulham (H)
If he is absent in September, he could also miss:
Manchester United (H)
Everton (A)
Tottenham Hotspur (H)
Bournemouth (A)
As well as potential Champions League and Carabao Cup ties.
It is therefore important that Jesus’ injury is minor, and that he can get up to speed by September, with two big games against Man United and Spurs on the horizon, but for now the club will have to cope without him again.