Premier League champions Arsenal have been dealt a significant injury blow after centre-back William Saliba was ruled out for “an extended period” with a back injury.<\/p>\n
The defender played with a back problem during France’s run to the World Cup semi-final<\/a> and, although he will not require an operation, the 25-year-old is set for a spell on the sidelines.<\/p>\n “Subsequent specialist reviews on William\u2019s return to London this week have confirmed that he has suffered a back injury which will require a period of rehabilitation,” said a statement from Arsenal.<\/p>\n “Extensive assessments have concluded that surgery is not recommended, but William should now commence a managed recovery programme.<\/p>\n “William\u2019s rehabilitation will commence immediately, with continual management of his injury, and he is expected to be out of action for an extended period.<\/p>\n “Everyone is fully focused on supporting William to ensure he is back to full fitness as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n Saliba had been managing the issue through the Gunners\u2019 title-winning season and was determined to continue through the World Cup.<\/p>\n However, after their defeat by Spain in the last four he sat out the third-place play-off.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve had some minor niggles for several months,” he said earlier in the tournament.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve been gritting my teeth because there was the Champions League and the Premier League.<\/p>\n “The World Cup comes round only once every four years, so you\u2019ve got to grit your teeth.”<\/p>\n \n Listen to the RT\u00c9 Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Premier League champions Arsenal have been dealt a significant injury blow after centre-back William Saliba was ruled out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-563989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}