Maitland-Niles faces lengthy Arsenal injury absence

Arsenal have confirmed that they expect to be without youngster Ainsley Maitland-Niles until October because of injury.

The 20-year-old suffered a minor leg break, which was sustained during the first half of last weekend’s 2-0 Premier League defeat at the hands of Manchester City and forced the defender to limp off.

He had been enduring a difficult time during that match, having been deployed at left-back, but will have to bide his time in order to bounce back.

A statement on the club’s official website from medical staff reports: “Ainsley has sustained a small fracture to his left fibula and will be out for six to eight weeks.”

Club legend David Seaman admitted he felt sorry for the young defender last Sunday, indicating he felt he had been left too exposed.

“We saw them a little bit disorganised at the back, I felt sorry for Maitland-Niles, he got isolated too much,” he told Talksport .

“You’ve got Riyad Mahrez and Kyle Walker attacking him for fun and he didn’t really get backed up by any other defenders.”

Meanwhile, defender Carl Jenkinson is expected to be out for a similar length of time as his colleague because of “a significant sprain to his right ankle”.

On long-term injury victims Sead Kolasinac and Laurent Koscielny, the news is broadly positive, with the defensive players expected to return to training in October and November respectively.

Finally, the Gunners confirmed that both Nacho Monreal and Danny Welbeck have returned to full training and must, therefore, be in consideration for the weekend’s derby against Chelsea.