What the ‘early indications’ suggest after Riccardo Calafiori picks up injury with Italy

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New defensive signings at Arsenal might be cursed.

12 months ago, Jurrien Timber joined Arsenal and picked up a season-ending injury in his first league appearance for the Gunners.

This summer, Riccardo Calafiori has joined Arsenal, and in his first international appearance for Italy since making this move, he’s picked up an injury.

Calafiori was forced off against France on Friday evening, and, as you can imagine, Arsenal fans are fearing the worst.

However, there is a positive update to share on Calafiori.

Indeed, according to Charles Watts, speaking on Inside Arsenal, the early indications are that Calafiori’s injury isn’t too bad.

• READ MORE: What Riccardo Calafiori was doing on the bench after hearing North London Forever anthem in first Arsenal home game

Riccardo Calafiori injury isn’t too bad

Watts shared what he’s hearing about the Italian.

“A very worrying injury for Riccardo Calafiori. It wouldn’t be an international break without an injury to a player and it’s Arsenal’s new signing who has that injury going off against France yesterday,” Watts said.

“Fingers crossed it’s not too bad, that is the early indications.”

“Calafiori was playing very well in that game, but he was forced off after 71 minutes. It didn’t look great, but the hope is that it was just the impact and nothing more than that. The early news coming out of Italy is, fingers crossed, quite promising.”

Arsenal will be fine

Riccardo Calafiori’s injury doesn’t appear to be too bad, and even if this was a serious injury, Arsenal would be fine.

If there’s any area where Arsenal have enough depth, it’s in the defence.

Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jurrien Timber are both capable of playing at left-back, while Timber and Jakub Kiwior are reliable deputies to Gabriel Magalhaes in that left centre-back slot.

It sounds as though Calafiori won’t be out for too long in any case, but even if this was a serious injury, it wouldn’t be the end of the world for Arsenal and their title challenge.