Arsenal suffered a major injury blow on Monday after Mikel Arteta confirmed that winger Bukayo Saka will be out for “many weeks” with a torn hamstring.

Sources told ESPN that the 23-year-old was told the news after seeing a specialist after leaving the stadium on crutches following the Gunners’ 5-1 win at Crystal Palace last weekend.

“It doesn’t look good,” Areta said. “He will be out for many weeks. I can’t be too specific because I don’t know, but it will take many weeks.”

“It’s a big blow. He’s obviously a big player for us, you just have to see the impact he has on the team. It will be a really good exercise for us to think about how we can overcome another challenge because we’ve had a lot over the course of the season.

“I’m putting together some ideas. I’m not ready yet. But I have a few. Then I also want to talk to the players to understand how we can implement these and implement them positively. Because.” That means we will be different.

“He was devastated. You can tell he wasn’t hurt because he was very, very emotional and really down. And we have to raise him up again. That’s a big part of his job. And he’ll be fine, but he’s going to be a few days before he realizes that he’s that important in the locker room.

“His energy, his body language and the way he communicates with the rest of the team has to be really good because that’s the only way he can help at the moment, so he should do better.”

Although Arteta was keen to explore the internal alternatives, the news that Raheem Sterling is also sidelined with a knee injury is a further blow as the Chelsea loanee would have been an obvious replacement.

“I think he will be out for weeks,” said Arteta. “He needs to undergo further tests tomorrow to understand the extent of his injury. It’s his knee. We have to wait another 24 hours. Unfortunately he will be out for a while.”

It is the third hamstring injury Saka has suffered this season.

The England international is a key player for Arteta and has started 16 of his 17 Premier League games. He only missed the 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth in October due to injury.

He has nine goals and 13 assists in 24 games in all competitions and when asked if Arsenal were ready to enter the January transfer market to replace Saka if needed, Arteta replied: “The preparation is complete and we are ready “If something were to happen.” Obviously we didn’t expect Bukayo and Raheem to be out at the same time.

“We rather predicted that it would be something different, for example if something happened on the defensive line. But the work is done and, okay, if something needs to happen, we’ll be open. But the main focus now is how we proceed. “Take out a lot of the potential that there is in this squad.

Arsenal host Ipswich at the Emirates Stadium on Friday.