Kai Havertz injury update as Arsenal prepare to make big decision on Leeds return | Football

Arsenal are hoping Kai Havertz’s hamstring injury is not serious as they prepare to return to Premier League action against Leeds United this weekend.

Havertz has been Mikel Arteta’s firm first choice centre forward so far this season, starting all five Premier League games with Viktor Gyokeres managing just 29 minutes of top flight action.

The former Chelsea star started Germany’s first match under Jurgen Klopp at the start of the international break but was forced off after 30 minutes after a challenge from Quentin Timber, twin brother of his Gunners teammate Jurrien.

The German FA later confirmed the 27-year-old had suffered a ‘muscle strain’, returning to north London for treatment.

Havertz has had long spells out of the team with various issues over the last three seasons. The former Bayer Leverkusen youngster missed over three months of action during the second-half of the 2024-25 season due to a hamstring injury he suffered during a warm-weather camp in Dubai which required surgery.

A knee issue suffered at the start of last season ensured he did not start a league match until the end of January earlier this year.

Havertz’s latest issue is not thought to be serious however with reports in Germany suggesting he would be facing four weeks out. Backdating that timeline to when it was originally suffered, it could still see him miss an important run of games in October, including the visit to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

‘A strain can be quite a generic term but in the context of the timeline that has been given, what they are likely saying is this is a light grade muscle strain instead of a big tear,’ Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics, told Metro.

‘If that’s the case it is likely a grade one or two issue, so anything from two to four weeks would fit for that.’

Opposition perspective: Leeds will prefer to deal with Gyokeres instead of Havertz

Leeds United have started the new season in thrilling form but were on the wrong end of a 5-0 hammering in the same fixture last season.

Viktor Gyokeres scored twice that afternoon but according to former White’s defender Matt Kilgallon, Daniel Farke’s side will feel far more comfortable dealing with the threat of the Swede.

‘For me, the only team that ever made Leeds United looked like a newly promoted team, throughout the entirety of last season; it was Arsenal,’ Kilgallon told Metro via a top site to bet on football.

‘Even though Gyokeres scored two of those five goals in the same fixture last season, from my point of view as a centre-half, I would still rather his name on the team sheet than Havertz, 100%.

‘Havertz is an absolute handful, and has a bit of everything about him. It’s not just him individually, but I think that Arsenal also play better as a team and a collective when he plays, just because of his link up play and he has the ability to hold the ball up, to lay it off to runners and bring everyone else around him into play.

‘I just don’t see that as much in Gyokeres if I’m totally honest – it’s just not his game.’

Havertz returned to Arsenal for assessment at the end of September, giving the staff at the club plenty of time to assess the latest issue.

‘Rather than focusing on the amount of time it is going to take [for Havertz to be able to play again], the staff will be focusing on how he rehabilitates and what he has to demonstrate along the way,’ Smith continued.

‘They will be looking at how quickly they can get him back to full pain-free movement. Then they will be looking at things like his hamstring strength against his pre-injury baseline and to ensure the gap isn’t too big.

‘They will be collecting a significant amount of data on movement, strength, endurance, before bringing in some on-field data to discover whether he can get to the same number of sprints, same amount of distance covered, the same top speed. All of that will have to be at around 90 or 96 per cent for what is normal for him.’

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