Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Ghana star Thomas Partey was unable to continue against Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon after picking up a muscular injury.
The Ghana international went down holding the back of his left leg with 16 minutes remaining of the 1-0 defeat and was replaced by Willian. At this point, it’s unclear how serious the damage is.
“He had a muscular injury so we had to take him off,” said the boss in his post-game press conference. “He could not carry on playing.
He added: “I don’t know [how serious it is. We will see the extent of the injury. He wasn’t feeling well enough to continue playing so we had to take him off.”
While Arsenal have eight days until the next game against Leeds United, we’re likely to face a race against time to get the 27-year-old fit.
Partey has only made 13 appearances for the Gunners since signing from Atletico Madrid at the end of the summer transfer window.
A thigh injury picked up in the home defeat to Villa in November proved so persistent he was sidelined for 13 games either side of a 45-minute appearance at Sp*rs when he aggravated the problem.
