Havertz, Rice & Saka: Arsenal injury news and expected return dates ahead of Brighton match

With half of the Premier League season now completed, Arsenal may be in second place but are rather more points off of top spot than they would have hoped to be, and if they’re going to maintain a serious title challenge, then they’ll have to be on top form for the rest of the campaign – and the biggest obstacle to that could be the fitness of their squad.

Mikel Arteta’s team has suffered from some high-profile injuries in recent months with Bukayo Saka joining Ben White on the list of long-term absentees. To make matters worse, there are reports of an illness going through the camp, and Kai Havertz was among the players who unexpectedly missed the 3-1 win over Brentford on New Year's Day.

With a potentially tricky trip to the Amex Stadium to play Brighton & Hove Albion coming up on Saturday, we’ve gathered all of the latest injury news after the Brentford game along with the stricken players’ expected return dates when available and provided the most recent updates on whether Havertz and others will play this weekend.

Kai Havertz

The German forward was left out of the squad for the short trip to Brentford despite scoring in his last two matches after a virus swept through the Arsenal squad, with Havertz seemingly one of the worst-affected.

Head coach Arteta told the media that Havertz “wasn’t feeling well at all” and had “very clear symptoms” so he was sent home to avoid further transmission of the bug, which has been described as “nothing serious” but is clearly enough to put players out of action. It is unknown whether Havertz, who has become the Gunners’ first-choice centre-forward since signing last summer, will recover in time to feature against Brighton.

Declan Rice

Although Havertz was the only senior player left out of the squad entirely due to the virus, there were reports that captain Martin Ødegaard has been affected as well and Rice was surprisingly dropped to the bench, only coming on for the last 12 minutes of the match.

Many reports on social media suggested that Rice had been impacted by the virus as well, although Arteta did not confirm as much himself and it is possible that the England midfielder was being rested during the busy festive period. Given that he was able to play towards the end of the game, it’s expected that he will be able to play on Saturday and may well be back in the starting line-up.

Bukayo Saka

The biggest injury issue facing Arsenal is the lengthy lay-off expected for star winger Saka, who suffered a serious hamstring injury will be about for “more than two months” according to Arteta.

The 23-year-old has undergone successful surgery on the injury but the rehabilitation process is expected to sideline him until early March and he may well miss at least nine league games as a result. Teenage starlet Ethan Nwaneri seems set for more chances to start in Saka’s stead.

Raheem Sterling

The on-loan winger has missed the last eight games after picking up a knee injury but Arteta described the latest news as “better” with regards to his recovery just before the turn of the year, with a chance that he returns to full training before the Brighton game. It is not clear whether he will make the trip to the Amex yet, but if not then he will more than likely be available for next weekend’s FA Cup third round tie against Manchester United at the latest.

Takehiro Tomiyasu

The Japanese full-back has only played six minutes of Premier League football this season thanks to a knee injury of his own and it is unclear when he will return, with club and coach less than forthcoming about his status and likely timetable. Arteta has spoken about Tomiyasu’s situation only to confirm that he still isn’t back in consideration.

Ben White

White underwent knee surgery in November and will be out for “months” as a result – Arteta has not set a specific date yet, but most news outlets expect him to miss the entirety of January and February, which puts him on a broadly similar timetable to Saka with his absence potentially no less impactful. The club have not offered an updates since the absence was announced.

Jurriën Timber

The Dutch defender isn’t injured but still won’t be able to feature against Brighton – he picked up his fifth yellow card of the campaign against Brentford and will be suspended for the trip to the Amex Stadium. He will only miss one match.