Arsenal summer signing spotted wearing protective boot

Arsenal defender Cristhian Mosquera was in attendance for Saturday’s game against Wolverhampton Wanderers, but the player was pictured wearing a protective boot.

Photo via @DailyAFC on Twitter

Following his injury against Brentford earlier this month, Cristhian Mosquera returned to the Emirates Stadium for Arsenal’s match against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.

But the 21-year-old could be seen wearing a protective boot as he walked around the pitch, as he works to recover from that recent ankle setback.

Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Sami Mokbel reported for the BBC on December 5th that Arsenal fear Mosquera will miss at least six weeks with his ankle injury, and possibly as many as eight.

The player suffered the injury whilst landing awkwardly, and Mikel Arteta quickly confirmed that the problem was serious in a subsequent press conference.

“He’s going to be out for weeks,” Arteta admitted. “Unfortunately, it’s much more than what we expected, the way he was feeling. So, he’s going to be out for weeks.”

Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

The date of Mokbel’s report suggests the expectation is that Mosquera could be out until January 30th, which would mean missing games against Everton, Crystal Palace, Brighton, Villa, Bournemouth, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Nottingham Forest, Inter Milan, Manchester United, and Kairat Almaty.

There might also be a League Cup semi-final match in there, depending on how how the Palace quarter-final goes.

The Gunners face Leeds United away on January 31st, so that’s the first game we can be pretty sure the centre-back should be fit again.

It’s far from an ideal time for Mosquera to be out, both because William Saliba has also recently been injured and because Ben White is now out. Mosquera was meant to provide cover at right-centre-back and right-back, so his absence is problematic in both positions.

It’s going to be a struggle to get through the next month and a half without the defender, and Arsenal fans will be wishing him a speedy recovery.