Arsenal's young striker Chuba Akpom is set to be out until the new year after suffering a setback while recovering from a back injury.
The 21-year old took to Twitter to announce that he would be facing a longerspell on the sidelines, andthe Independenthave reported that he will be missing until the start of 2017.
Gutted to be out for a while with this back injury. Ill be back stronger 💪� ⚽� pic.twitter.com/P6h4f9ccgd
Akpom, who's injury is expected to be a stress fracture, was not loaned out by Arsenal in the summer due to the club's lack of options in attack. His last start was theEFL Cup game at Nottingham Forest on 20th September.
He has made 10 appearances in total for Arsenal since making his debut in September 2013 aged 17.
The Gunners are left with Alexis Sanchez, Lucas Perez and the returning Olivier Giroud as their striking options in the absence of both Akpom and Danny Welbeck, the latter out with a long-term knee injury. Yaya Sanogo could be an alternative, but the Frenchmanis not currentlyin Arsene Wenger's first team plans.
Speaking on summer signing Perez, Wenger praised the Spaniard despite his lack of game time since arriving at the Emirates.
I believe that he has the potential to be a great player for us,� Wenger said last night. In training he continues to show he has the potential to play, he now has to transfer that into the games and the more he does that, the more we will be tempted to say, ˜let's do it'.
He did extremely well against Ludogorets because he came on and gave two great goals. He was a bit like the rest of the team against Middlesbrough, in that he could not have as big an impact because the whole team was not functioning as well.�