Arsenal must make a clear decision on William Saliba\u2019s persistent back problem once the World Cup concludes, L\u2019\u00c9quipe reports. Medical staff and those close to the centre back have flagged ongoing concerns about his long-term fitness, with the player seen grimacing during parts of team training before Monday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
As it stands, and has been the case for a while now, Saliba is expected to continue to play through the injury. The club will still need a formal treatment plan after the World Cup. Arsenal could continue with a conservative management strategy, but surgery has not been ruled out and remains a possible course of action.<\/p>\n
If the issue is aggravated during the tournament, any further damage this summer could significantly delay his participation at the start of next season. The specifics of Saliba\u2019s current ailment remain unclear at present, and it is not yet known whether this problem is connected to the back injury that sidelined him in March 2023.<\/p>\n
Supporters will recall that Saliba missed three months in 2023 while recovering from that earlier back injury. Many fans saw his absence that season as a factor in Arsenal\u2019s slip in the Premier League title race. Those memories contribute to the current anxiety around the possibility that a recurring condition may require more definitive treatment.<\/p>\n
Should Saliba undergo surgery after the World Cup, he would almost certainly not be ready for the start of the 2026\u201327 season, although recovery timelines can vary depending on the exact nature of the intervention. Arsenal\u2019s title defence is due to begin on August 22, a little over a month after the World Cup final on July 19. With France listed among the pre-tournament favourites, Saliba will be hoping for a deep run, perhaps lasting until the very last day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal must decide Saliba’s back issue after the World Cup; surgery could delay 2026\u201327 start soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1303],"tags":[1683],"class_list":["post-14239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-news","tag-back-injury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}