Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino injured in first training session

Arsenal's new signing Mikel Merino will likely be missing for most of September, after injuring his shoulder in his first training session for the club. The Euro 2024 winning midfielder fell awkwardly in training, and now will be unavailable for the key crunch tie against bitter rivals Tottenham. It is a huge blow for Arsenal, who had hoped to call upon the Spaniard in this weekend's Premier League match against Brighton and Hove Albion.

The £33 million transfer signing suffered the injury after Gabriel Magalhaes landed on top of him.

“It looks like he’s going to be out for a few weeks,” said the Arsenal manager. “He was really excited and everything was looking really good. He landed on the floor and Gabi landed on top of him and it looks like he has a small fracture probably. We have to see [how long he is out]. He was in so much pain. We’ll have to do some more tests on that and then we’ll have more conclusive answers.”