Further scans are unlikely to reveal any major injury problems for Noni Madueke with the Arsenal winger facing up to two months on the sidelines.
Madueke became the latest Gunners star to pick an injury after he was forced off at half-time in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City.
The England international, a £52million signing from Chelsea in the summer transfer window, has impressed in the opening weeks of the new season for both club and country, starring on the right with Bukayo Saka missing three matches with a hamstring injury.
Saka made his return off the bench on Sunday but the loss of Madueke, brought to the Emirates to add depth to Mikel Arteta’s attack, serves as a major loss given his form.
There was good news this week with reports suggesting the 23-year-old is facing six to eight weeks out of action having avoided an anterior cruciate ligament injury – the likes of which could have ended his season.
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Explaining the exact nature of Madueke’s injury, Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics, identifies the issue as a medical ligament issue, agreeing with the reported timeline for recovery.
‘Generally if it is something that short-term it is usually one of two things,’ Smith told Metro. ‘It is either a ligamentous injury where it is not an ACL but could be a medial ligament or a LCL (lateral cruciate ligament) or it could be a cartilage issue.
‘They were suggesting they were wating for some swelling to subside so in that situation it’s more likely to be a MCL with some fibre disruption, or a small tear in his medial ligament with some swelling. Now they will manage that and begin to put him through his paces in rehab rather than anything that requires surgery.
‘In a scenario like that, having also seen how he moved around since [picking up the injury] I would suggest it is a grade 2 medial ligament strain they are talking about. Six to eight weeks feels around normal for that type of injury.’
While Arsenal will be relieved by this week’s prognosis, Madueke will still miss a sizeable portion of the season and will have to be eased back into the side when passed fit.
‘Six to eight weeks instead of six to eight months is a big relief I’m sure for them right now,’ Smith said.
‘But still, for a team competing for the title, two months is a huge period of time to not have a player of that quality. He’ll have to be eased back in heading into December which is already a very frantic period of the season.’
