Kai Havertz ruled out of Arsenal and Germany games and may need surgery

Kai Havertz will miss Arsenal’s showdown at Liverpool on Sunday and Germany’s World Cup qualifiers next month, with a decision yet to be made on whether the forward needs surgery on a knee injury.

Havertz picked up the injury during his substitute appearance against Manchester United on the opening Premier League weekend and did not feature in Arsenal’s 5-0 win over Leeds on Saturday. Mikel Arteta said Arsenal were not sure how serious it was and that they would conduct more tests “to explore the issue a little bit further and decide what we’re going to do”.

Rudi Völler, the men’s national team director at the German football federation, has confirmed Havertz will miss their World Cup qualifiers against Slovakia and Northern Ireland and said surgery remained a possibility for the 26-year-old.

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“He certainly won’t make it, he has a knee injury,” Völler said. “We don’t know exactly how it will go in the coming weeks, whether surgery is upcoming or it will be treated conservatively.”

Havertz was sidelined from early February to mid-May last season after a hamstring tear at a training camp in Dubai. Fears that his latest injury could result in another lengthy layoff is believed to have prompted Arsenal to follow through on their longstanding interest in Eberechi Eze, who could make his debut at Anfield after his £67.5m move from Crystal Palace.

Bukayo Saka is also expected to be absent against Liverpool and from England’s World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia after sustaining a hamstring injury against Leeds. That is not as significant as initially feared, with the 23-year-old understood to have not had to see a specialist, although Saka is likely to be out for about three to four weeks. The captain, Martin Ødegaard, is a doubt for the trip to Anfield after injuring a shoulder.

Arsenal are interested in signing Piero Hincapié from Bayer Leverkusen but need to sell fringe players before pressing ahead with a deal for the Ecuador defender, who is capable of playing as a left-sided centre-back or left-back. He has a release clause of €60m (£52m) and is believed to be keen to join.

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Arsenal have already spent about £250m this summer and are hoping to make sales before the window closes on Monday. Porto have offered a loan deal for Jakub Kiwior with an obligation to buy for €25m (£21.5m) and the Poland defender is believed to have his heart set on a move away from the Premier League despite interest from English clubs. Porto have also shown interest in Oleksandr Zinchenko, and Fábio Vieira and Reiss Nelson could leave in the coming days.

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