North London’s infirmary – Kai Havertz suffers an injury setback again

Half a club, half a magnet for bad luck. Since the start of the 2024/25 season, Arsenal players have suffered 100 different injuries, severely disrupting their plans on the road to trophies. This is not an excuse-making story for Mikel Arteta and the Gunners, but rather an introduction to information reported by the British Daily Mail concerning Kai Havertz.

The German has not returned to the pitch since the very beginning of the season, August 17, after suffering a knee injury in a match against Manchester United — an injury that also required surgery. Havertz then entered a recovery and rehabilitation process, and the aforementioned outlet reports that the attacker was close to making his comeback in November.

Everything was almost in place, but the Germany international picked up another injury during one of the final training sessions, just a week before Arteta had planned to include him in the matchday protocol.

Yet another sign of Arsenal’s apparent curse with misfortune. If no new, unforeseen circumstances arise, Havertz is expected to be back in contention for Premier League matches in mid-January. January 8 and the derby against Liverpool is the earliest date on which he could be named in the squad.

Since moving from Stamford Bridge to the Emirates in the summer of 2023 in a 75 million euros transfer, the 26-year-old has played 88 matches but missed as many as 46 games for Arsenal. Prior to the knee injury, he had already been troubled by a hamstring problem he picked up in February 2024.

The Gunners have been in a constant injury crisis. During December, Viktor Gyokeres, Noni Madueke, Gabriel Jesus and William Saliba fortunately returned to fitness. Still sidelined alongside Havertz are Gabriel Magalhaes, Cristian Mosquera, Ben White and young Max Daumen.