Bukayo Saka has been sidelined once again after sustaining a quad injury during Arsenal's 2-2 draw against Bayern Munich, marking the latest setback in a career increasingly defined by heavy workload and recurring fitness problems.
Three years ago, Saka's remarkable streak of 87 consecutive Premier League appearances came to an end after a thigh issue. That run, hailed as a triumph of durability, now looks like an uncomfortable demand, especially as Saka has since missed 48 matches due to injury since the start of the 2023-24 season. Before that point in his career, he had been absent for only three matches.
Years of relentless minutes
In the 2022-23 season, Saka started 37 of 38 league matches, one more than the previous campaign. In the only match he did not start, Arteta brought him on for half an hour despite Arsenal being 3-0 up against Leeds. Of those 37 starts, Saka played the full 90 minutes in 26 of them. He was replaced before the 70th minute just twice, one of which was forced by injury.
That same season, Saka started in the third round of the FA Cup against Oxford United and featured in every Europa League match too. Even when Arsenal led 2-0 at home to Bodo/Glimt, Saka was introduced on the hour mark. A season later, Saka started all 35 of the 38 league matches he was fit for, coming off before the 70th minute only four times.
Recruitment failures on the right wing
It has also been a failure of recruitment from the club. Saka has played so much in part because Arteta simply has not trusted the alternative options available to him. Arsenal's signings on the right wing since the summer of 2020 have been Willian, Fabio Vieira, Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke. For a club that has been in the thick of a title race for four straight years, that is remarkably poor.
Madueke, clearly, was a significant upgrade on those other additions. It showed last season with Arteta's team selections. Very rarely did Saka start three times in a week, a marked difference from previous campaigns. However, the damage had really already been done.
Consequences of pushing to the brink
By the time he had turned 22, Saka had already made 212 senior appearances for club and country. On his 22nd birthday, Lionel Messi had 200 matches under his belt. Saka missed chunks of last season with Achilles and hip injuries. The season before that, he was out for more than 100 days after hamstring surgery. Now he faces at least six weeks on the sidelines with a quad problem.
Despite the run of injuries, it does not feel like lessons have been particularly learned, by Arsenal or England. After a World Cup that was hampered by an ongoing Achilles problem, Saka then had just seven days completely off over the summer before he started training again. He returned to Arsenal for the start of his pre-season ahead of schedule.
While Declan Rice pulled out of the England squad for the last international break to manage his workload, Saka started three matches in a week, including the full 90 minutes in a 7-0 win over Croatia. Arteta often views availability as a mental issue as much as a physical one, wanting players who declare themselves fit and push through the pain barrier.
Arteta stated in 2022, dismissing suggestions Saka needed to be better protected: "Look at the top players in the world. They play 70 matches, every three days and make the difference and win the game. You want to be at the top, you have to be able to do that. There is not a fitness coach in the world who is going to tell me that they cannot do it because I've seen it."
Arteta's use of Saka over the past seven years shows that no fitness coach has been able to tell him that. The desperation to play Saka at every opportunity has come at a cost, and those opportunities to play him have been diminished.
