Bukayo Saka forced off against Lens & a doubt for Arsenal's clash with Man City

Arsenal have been dealt a huge injury blow ahead of Sunday’s showdown with Manchester City after Bukayo Saka was forced off against Lens in the Champions League.

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The winger was a doubt going into Tuesday’s match having picked up an injury against Bournemouth at the weekend which forced him to be replaced by Fabio Vieira in the 76th minute.

Saka left the field very gingerly on the south coast but trained on Monday ahead of the trip to Lens and was named in the starting XI for Arsenal’s second group match.

He was involved in Arsenal’s opening goal, intercepting a stray pass and immediately playing in Gabriel Jesus who fired into the bottom corner with an excellent finish.

But around the half-hour mark he seemed to be struggling following an innocuous passage of play in which he dribbled into the box and played in Takehiro Tomiyasu on the overlap.

The full-back’s cross was cleared and Saka tracked back to cover for the Japan international, though was not running normally and appeared to be in some discomfort.

He struggled to keep pace with Adrien Thomasson – who had netted Lens’ equaliser – and could only make a half-hearted attempted to try and tackle before pulling up.

He limped around for several minutes after that and tried to run off the problem but was clearly in considerable pain and was moving very awkwardly.

In the 32nd minute he hit the deck and called for treatment, shaking his head as the Arsenal physio ran onto the pitch.

Saka appeared to be struggling with his thigh and the physio tried to ease the issue before Saka shook his head again, got to his feet and limped off the pitch.

He was replaced by Vieira once again – just as was the case against Bournemouth – and headed straight down the tunnel, continuing to limp as he did so.

Manager Mikel Arteta took a big risk playing Saka against Lens and it appears to have backfired, with the 22-year-old now a major doubt for Sunday’s clash with Manchester City.

Saka has been in excellent form so far this season and his assist against Lens saw him become the first player in Europe’s top five leagues to both score and assist five or more goals in all competitions.

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