Arsenal talisman, Bukayo Saka, pulled up short and was substituted for Chelsea’s Noni Madueke in the 51st minute in England’s late defeat to Greece.
Bearing in mind that Arsenal lost their captain, Martin Odegaard, to an ankle injury on international duty, everyone connected with the club had every right to be angry, losing such a vital player to a competition currently regarded as a ‘glorified friendly’. We waited to see Lee Carsley’s comments on Saka and most importantly, hoped that common sense would prevail with Carsley sanctioning Saka to leave the England camp and return to London Colney for further assessment of the injury.
Thankfully, Saka is currently in London and will be working with the medical team at the Emirates to be in the best conditioning required to potentially feature against Bournemouth next weekend. England didn’t even need Saka to see off Finland in their final Nations League match, as Arsenal’s own Declan Rice scored in the 3-1 victory.
Will Saka be fit enough to play Bournemouth?
England interim boss, Lee Carsley, shared his thoughts on the injury situation and believes that he will be fit,
“Bukayo would have been close but it would have been unfair to take a risk with him. He’s a positive person and I expect him to be fine.”
These are welcome comments from Carsley but I’m certain that Mikel Arteta will be asked about Saka’s fitness in this Bournemouth press conference. We can only hope that the news he would share would be positive.
