Arsenal have been dealt a major injury setback with new £31m signing Mikel Merino suffering a shoulder injury in his first full training session with the squad.
The 28-year-old midfielder was a crucial part of Real Sociedad's squad after joining the Basque side in 2018.
In the heart of La Real's midfield, Merino made 242 appearances, scoring 27 goals and providing 30 assists, while he also starred for Spain in their European Championship triumph.
The Spaniard's highly anticipated move from Real Sociedad was finalised earlier this week, and there were hopes he would debut against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
However, Merino's debut will now be delayed after he sustained an injury in a collision with his new teammate Gabriel Magalhaes during his first training session with the Gunners.
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Arteta confirms Merino set for "weeks" out
In his pre-match press conference ahead of the Gunners fixture against the Seagulls, Mikel Arteta revealed that the Spain international is facing "weeks" out.
Arteta said: "Very unfortunate yesterday he had a collision and he has got a shoulder injury unfortunately. It looks like he is going to be out for a few weeks.
"First session with us. It was looking exciting, we were all very excited, everything was looking very good... he landed on the floor and Gabi went on top of him.
"It looks like he has got a small fracture probably. We have to see (how long he will be out), he was in so much pain, we have to see wait to do some more tests. Then we will have more conclusive answers. This is football."
Rumours of the injury to Merino emerged last night after the Spain international was seen wearing a sling in a London restaurant.
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Arteta on player availability for the weekend
During the press conference, Arteta also confirmed that Gabriel Jesus will miss tomorrow's match as he recovers from a groin injury sustained in training last week.
"He's progressing really well, he had a little muscle injury and he's doing quite a lot of stuff already so we expect him to be with us pretty soon," the Gunners boss said.
Regarding Takehiro Tomiyasu, who has not featured since the first week of pre-season training, the news was less positive.
"At the moment it's difficult to say," said Arteta. "It's a bit slow the process of the first phase of that injury, it's probably one for the medical team to say more on that."
When asked if the Japanese defender had resumed training, the response was, "No, not yet."
Devesh Jaganath
