‘I’m told’: £30m Arsenal player is almost certain to miss the Southampton game with injury now – journalist

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William Saliba may not be back fully fit until next season, and he’s almost certain to miss Arsenal’s game against Southampton on Friday.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Charles Watts has been discussing the French defender’s injury status.

As we all know, the £30m defender has been out of action for over a month now with a back injury, and according to Watts, he may not be fully recovered until next season now.

However, that isn’t to say that Saliba won’t play again this term. Watts stated that Arsenal will try to get what they can out of the French defender, but it may be a case of putting him in the team for key games and then taking him out again as his back issue will persist and flare up.

Saliba won’t be back properly until next season

Watts shared what he knows about Saliba ahead of this weekend’s game.

“I don’t think Saliba will be back for this game. It’s hard to comment on the Saliba injury at the moment from what I’m told they’re really trying to manage him and they want him to play a big part in this run-in, but they can’t do it until they’re sure he’ll be right,” Watts said.

I don’t think there’s any way, let’s say we see Saliba against Man City, I don’t think it’d be the case of him staying in the team until the end of the season. It sounds like it’s a situation they’re trying to manage to get whatever they can out of him until the end of the season.”

“I can’t see there’s any way he’ll be back for Southampton, they might get him into a state where he could feature against City, but a lot of things will have to go right for that to happen.”

Do what you can

Usually, we’d completely advise against using a player who clearly isn’t 100 per cent fit, but on this occasion, Arsenal need to get what they can out of Saliba even if he’s not fully right.

The French defender can single-handedly win games for Arsenal, and with a Premier League title within touching distance, they need to use him when he can, even if he’ll have to come in and out of the side on a week-to-week basis.

We may well see Saliba before the end of the season, but it sounds as though he won’t be fully recovered until next term.