Arteta on Calafiori injury and tiredness after beating <strong>Shakhtar Donetsk</strong> | OneFootball

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta admits he is worried about the injury to defender Riccardo Calafiori which forced him off in the Champions League win over Shakhtar Donetsk.

The Gunners picked up their second win of their Champions League campaign thanks to an own goal from Dmytro Riznyk, when Gabriel Martinelli’s shot hit the post before rebounding off the Shakhtar goalkeeper and in.

But there is further worry for Arteta after Calafiori was forced off in the second half.

Arsenal will already be without defender William Saliba due to suspension against Liverpool on Sunday, while Bukayo Saka, Jurrien Timber and Martin Odegaard were again among those to miss out through injury in their Champions League win.

“Asked about Calafiori’s injury, Arteta said: “He had to come off because he felt something. I don’t know the extent of that. It’s not great news.”

It was a far from comfortable win for the Gunners and Arteta admits tiredness was a factor behind the narrow victory.

“We played two-and-a-half days ago after coming from internationals, flying from Brazil, many countries, so I was expecting that we could drop off a little bit,” he said.

“And the fact we put so much into the first half and we didn’t get the distance in terms of the result and the scoreline, I think we paid a little bit for that.

“We made life more difficult for us because we started to give the ball away and it was more open so that didn’t help.

“But we now have four days and on Sunday we will be flying.”