Arsenal make key decision on Kai Havertz knee injury

Kai Havertz has undergone surgery on the knee injury that kept him out of Arsenal’s win over Leeds United last weekend.

The Germany international suffered a serious hamstring injury last season but recovered in time to feature in the final two games of the campaign.

Havertz faces increased competition for his place this term following the signing of Viktor Gyokeres and started on the bench in a 1-0 victory against Manchester United on the opening weekend.

The former Chelsea star suffered a setback during that game after replacing his new teammate on the hour mark.

Arsenal were hoping Havertz would avoid having to go under the knife but having decided on a course of action they remain hopeful his absence will be a short term one.

Speaking about Havertz’s injury last week, Mikel Arteta said: ‘He’s got an injury, we don’t really know the extent of it. I think we need a bit more time and more tests. I think after that we’ll have more clarity about next steps.

‘I don’t want to speak about the specifics. He’s not fit, we need to explore that issue a bit further and then decide what we’re going to do.

‘He cannot play tomorrow. I would love to have him fresh and available and bringing what he brings to the team. Unfortunately that’s not going to be possible.

‘Mentally he’s in a good place because he’s a strong boy, very committed. He had an incredible recovery from the hamstring surgery, he never had an injury before so it was the first experience.

‘Now he has a setback, we’ll see how bad it is but he will deal with it in the best possible way. Hopefully we’re going to have him soon.’

Arteta, meanwhile, will be without Bukayo Saka for Sunday’s trip to Liverpool while captain Martain Odegaard is a doubt with the shoulder injury he picked up against Leeds.

New signing Eberechi Eze is in line to make his debut, however, while Gyokeres, fresh from his two goals last weekend, will lead the line with renewed confidence.

‘It felt good,’ said Gyokeres after breaking his duck. ‘It was nice to get 90 minutes, of course, to get the rhythm going and play with the guys even more. I think it was a good game overall.?

‘I felt good today, of course, scoring two and the team scoring five. I think that showed that we can be a massive threat going forward because we have a lot of great players attacking but also, of course, it’s very important with the defending as well.

‘I think we pressed very good today and didn’t give them much time on the ball. I think we deserved this win today.’