Arsenal's forward Kai Havertz is reportedly expected to be out of action until early to mid-January due to a setback he experienced last month while recovering from minor knee surgery.
The striker has been sidelined since sustaining a knee injury against Manchester United in the Gunners' opening Premier League match of the season on August 17. This necessitated Havertz undergoing knee surgery a week later.
The Daily Mail report that in November, the 26-year-old was just a week away from rejoining the matchday squad before encountering a problem in his final training sessions. While the German now hopes to be ready for matchday squad selection by the middle of next month; he has not resumed training since his setback.
There is now reportedly a possibility that Havertz could make the Arsenalsquad for their league match against Liverpool on January 8, although it's more likely he will return for the FA Cup third-round match against Portsmouth three days later.
Havertz has been plagued by injuries this year, having torn his hamstring in the north London club's warm-weather camp in February last season.
When asked about Havertz's injury earlier this month, Arteta said: "Matter of weeks. Let's see how it evolves in the next few weeks. He's doing really well, he’s doing stuff on the pitch, but I think he needs some time."
The news will be of concern to Arsenal's head coach, with Viktor Gyokeres struggling up front so far for the Gunners. Gyokeres has scored just six goals so far this season since his £63.5million move to the Emirates Stadium this summer.
Arteta has recently told the Swede's critics to 'leave him alone' - despite admitting the striker needs to start scoring.
He said: "There was a lot of excitement because we were bringing a proven scorer that had probably the best stats in Europe.
"He is a player that comes to a different league, the most demanding league in the world, and what happens if he doesn't score for five or six games?
"That was my only question to him: 'How are you going to react if you don't score in five or six games? Can you cope with that? And then what's going to happen in the next 100 games?'
"And that's what you have to see. The sample is very small.
"So, leave him alone, let him do what he does best, be behind him and I'm sure things will turn out in the right way."
