Thomas Partey sustained a muscle injury during Arsenal s defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday, manager Mikel Arteta confirmed.
The midfielder was replaced by Willian after 74 minutes of the 1-0 loss at Villa Park, the Gunners second Premier League defeat in a row and their 10th of the season.
The £45million signing from Atletico Madrid has only completed 90 minutes for Arsenal four times in all competitions and had a thigh injury that saw him miss a month of action from early December.
Of his nine starts in the top flight, this was the sixth time he has been substituted.
Speaking after the match, Arteta said: He had a muscular injury so we had to take him off. He could not carry on playing.
I don t know [how bad it is]. We will see the extent of the injury. He wasn t feeling well enough to continue playing so we had to take him off.
3 Ollie Watkins is the first Aston Villa player to score in three consecutive Premier League matches at Villa Park since Darren Bent in November 2011. Dangermen.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe)
Ollie Watkins scored after 74 seconds and Villa held firm to see out a third consecutive league win over Arsenal, the first time they have enjoyed such a run since November 1993.
They had eight shots on target to Arsenal s three, despite having only 34 per cent of the possession, with their expected goals rating of 1.2 better than the visitors 0.8.
It was a performance boss Dean Smith felt was much improved from the one they delivered on Wednesday, when they lost 3-1 at home to West Ham.
I said to them at the start that we d gone away from being a good team on Wednesday, and the values we d had to be a good team had been about the work rate, the team ethic and being good team-mates. We saw that in bundles today, Smith said to BT Sport after watching his side move eighth in the table.
We started with a really good intensity, that set us up really well. It had to be a good defensive performance at times, but their goalkeeper made some really good saves as well.
There s a doggedness about the players, a great team spirit. You could hear them at the end, the last five minutes, it was the noise you want to hear.
