Arsenal star Takehiro Tomiyasu was clutching his calf as he was replaced by Ben White with just over 10 minutes to play against Wolves. The Japan international followed up his two assists in the 6-0 win over RC Lens by contributing to another goal as it was his pass that was finished expertly by Bukayo Saka.
Due to injury issues for Ben White, Tomiyasu had started the last five games in all competitions and if it is a severe injury for the versatile defender, it will be a huge blow for both the player and Mikel Arteta. The Gunners will play five games between now and Christmas Day and Tomiyasu being absent for a number of weeks will give Arteta quite the selection headache.
Injury problems looked to be lessening for the Gunners in recent weeks with Fabio Vieira as the only player to join the injury list that already consists of Emile Smith Rowe, Thomas Partey and Jurrien Timber. White, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus had all returned in recent weeks with the latter attacking duo making quite the impact in recent days.
Tomiyasu handed Arteta a huge injury worry earlier this season as he was forced off at half time in the Champions League victory against Sevilla. However, he was back in the starting XI just a few days later for the visit of Burnley, but his latest issue could be a severe one.
The 25-year-old endured a difficult second campaign and admitted to football.london in an interview over the summer that he had been struggling with confidence. “Yes, it was a difficult period for me,” he said. “Ben White was doing very well and to be honest I lost confidence. But the injured period was four months and I thought about a lot of things at this time.
“You need to learn from the injuries, also the mistakes from the Manchester City game as well (where his error allowed Kevin De Bruyne to open the scoring in February’s top-of-the-table clash at the Emirates). You have good and bad moments but you need to learn a lot of things from the bad moments. Now I am feeling good, not only for the body, but my head also like career, yeah, it’s all positive.”
Following his impressive first few months, Arsenal want to open contract talks for Tomiyasu, as football.london understands. Bayern Munich have been listed as a team interested in acquiring his services but he looks unlikely to depart given his new role at Emirates Stadium.