On the face of it this is bad news for Arsenal, but for those fans that have been hoping that Arsene Wenger would sign another deep lying central midfielder during the summer transfer window, it might come as a welcome bit of news.
One man who will definitely not be happy is the Arsenal club captain Mikel Arteta, as the Spaniard has suffered yet another injury setback according to a Metro report. The Spaniard was just getting fully fit again after a succession of problems effectively wiped him out for the whole of last season but has now picked up another calf problem.
The report claims that it is not a recurrence of the problem Arteta suffered last year and we do not yet know how serious it is or how long he will be out. With a shorter summer break than usual because of the Euro 2016 tournament next summer, this pre-season is more important than ever, especially for someone like Arteta that has played hardly any football recently.
Now Arsene Wenger has a decision to make as top whether to use the transfer window to strengthen our options in the centre of the pitch. We have Coquelin and Flamini, of course, and there is always the option of getting Wilshere to reprise his England international role, but if Arteta is likely to miss a chunk of games, do we need to sign someone?