‘Unfortunately’: Arteta opens up on ‘bad news’ regarding Arsenal star

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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta provided an update on Takehiro Tomiyasu’s fitness after the Europa League win over FC Zurich.

The Gunners full-back took to the Emirates Stadium pitch in the 73rd minute as a replacement for Ben White.

However, Tomiyasu pulled up with a suspected hamstring issue just two minutes from time.

He was seen clutching his hamstring and now a nervous wait ensues ahead of the trip to Chelsea on Sunday.

Arteta, speaking to the Arsenal media team, admitted that he swiftly decided to withdraw Tomiyasu as a precaution.

He admitted he doesn’t know the extent of the 23-year-old’s issue at this moment in time.

Arteta then called on the entirety of the squad to “be ready” for the last few fixtures ahead of the World Cup.

“We don’t know [what the issue is],” said the Arsenal boss. “He felt something and we didn’t want to take any risks.

“With the amount of games that we’re playing, it’s part of it. It can happen in training, it can happen in games and unfortunately, it happened to Tomi today.

“The rest of the players have to be ready because we’re going to need everybody now. We have managed the load of the players in the last four weeks because of the amount of games that we have played.

“It is very difficult to get the balance and to get the right performances and win matches, and resting some players and keeping them fresh is always challenging, we have tried to do our best.

“Today we had bad news with Tomiyasu, but I think for the rest it has worked pretty well.”

The Mirror quotes Arteta as saying: “He had some muscular issue so we will assess him in the next 48 hours and see what happens.”

Tomiyasu, like Tierney, was a regular starter last season who has now become a squad rotation player.

It reflects how good Arsenal’s strength in depth is, and during such a unique season, that’s key.

Fingers crossed Tomiyasu’s injury is not serious.