Saka ruled out for weeks with hamstring injury

Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka’s latest hamstring injury will keep him out for “a few weeks,” manager Mikel Arteta said Friday ahead of the Premier League game at Liverpool.

Sunday’s match at Anfield is an early clash of title contenders, but the Gunners face the defending champion saddled with injuries to key players, including captain Martin Odegaard.

The midfielder hurt his shoulder during Arsenal’s 5-0 victory over Leeds last weekend.”He hasn´t trained yet, and if he does it will be tomorrow,” Arteta said.

“He´s doing everything he can, we´re doing everything that we can to make him available, but we´ll have to wait and see tomorrow. … if everything goes well, he can cope with it.

“This week, Odegaard was summoned by Norway for upcoming matches.Saka, who also exited the Leeds game, missed more than three months last season because of a hamstring tear that required surgery.

“No surgery (this time), it´s not as bad as the previous one,” said Arteta, adding that it’s not the same leg. “He will be out for a few weeks.”Arsenal was runner-up to Liverpool last season.

Kai Havertz had knee surgery Thursday after being injured in the season-opening game at Manchester United.”I think it will be weeks, but I don´t know how many months,” Arteta said of a timeline for the forward’s return.

“He did tremendously well to recover from the previous one. … We lost another big player for many, many weeks, but (surgery) was the right thing to do.

“Havertz missed several months last season with a hamstring injury.The Germany international provided his own update Friday on his social media accounts: “Small setback, thanks to the medical team for all the care and attention. Back soon.”