Kai Havertz to undergo surgery on knee issue as Arsenal make decision on forward

Kai Havertz suffered a knee injury in training last week, prompting Arsenal to dive back into the transfer market and sign Eberechi Eze for £67.5million to bolster their attack

Arsenal star Kai Havertz will undergo surgery to resolve a knee injury – but he isn’t expected to be sidelined for a significant period of time. Havertz, 26, injured his knee in training last week and Mikel Arteta said that the Germany international needed ‘more tests’ to determine how long he’ll be out.

In light of his injury, the Gunners signed Eberechi Eze in a £67.5million transfer deal from Crystal Palace. Arsenal had already bolstered their attacking options with the arrivals of Viktor Gyokeres and Noni Madueke.

Havertz had only recently returned from a long-term hamstring issue which saw him effectively miss the final three months of last season. Now the ex-Chelsea forward is expected to miss a single-digit number of weeks following surgery, the Athletic report.

“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,” Arteta commented.

“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.

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“He cannot play tomorrow (Saturday’s 5-0 win against Leeds). 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.”

Will Arsenal cope without Kai Havertz? Give us your prediction in the comments section.

Havertz was duly left out of Germany’s squad for their upcoming World Cup qualifying fixtures. “He certainly won’t make it,” Rudi Voller, the director of the national team, told reporters on Tuesday.

“We don’t know exactly how it will go in the coming weeks, whether surgery is upcoming or it will be treated conservatively.”

Havertz played 30 minutes in Arsenal’s opening game away to Manchester United, a hard-fought 1-0 victory. Gyokeres was chosen to start ahead of him and although he failed to score at Old Trafford, he bagged two on his home debut against Leeds and will be hungry for more goals when the Gunners travel to face Liverpool on Sunday.

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