We’re not even a full week into this extended and, frankly, f*cking annoying international foreverness, and we’ve already got a reason to say piss off to it.

Honestly, this is why we seem to get more annoyed by international breaks than anyone else, because it feels like every time we have one, there’s an Arsenal player who suffers a potentially long-term injury. And this time it is Kai Havertz who has suffered it.

Here’s a quick vid of the incident on Twitter that I found:

Kind of feels like an additional kick in the teeth that it was Jurrien’s twin brother Quentin who delivered the high boot that caused it. The fates are not kind to The Arsenal.

He came off on 30 minutes; he didn’t look good at all. Klopp confirmed afterwards that it was muscular and that he would undergo an MRI last night and then return to The Arsenal. Now, there’s been a few videos doing the rounds seeing him walk off, down into the tunnel and down the steps, which people are taking to mean it should be minor. If it’s a hamstring, then we probably won’t have much of an idea or clue by just seeing him walk off and down the tunnel; I’m sure there was one with Theo way back when, with him walking off, then being out for about six weeks. A quick Google search brings up an article like this one, which says it could be anything from two days to six weeks. It’s clearly not two days, because Klopp has said he’ll be sent back to The Arsenal, which suggests that there’s enough there for us to be talking weeks instead of days.

Let’s go for an average estimate, which is three to four weeks out. That puts Kai as coming back for the weekend of 23rd October. That would mean he misses Leeds at home, Lille at home, Forest away and Bayern away, potentially making it back for Everton at home on Saturday 24th October. You’d hope the first three games it would be something that we would cope with, but that Bayern game is 100% one we could do with him back for. We saw last season that Big Vik hardly does swimmingly against elite opposition, so having him up against Upamecano and Tah hardly makes me think that the Swede will get much chance.

The other concern is what I’ve seen some Arsenal fans speculate about online, which I think I kind of sit in the same camp as, which is that it takes Gyokeres a few games to get his engine up and running and delivering for us. The counter to that, I guess, is that last season, after we’d played Man United in the first week and he didn’t really get much of a sniff, we smashed Leeds at home 5-0 and he bagged two goals, including a penalty. The first goal was what we thought we would see all season: picked the ball up just inside the box on the left-hand side, drove in field and smashed it in from about eight yards. It didn’t happen with enough regularity to my liking, but in the end that didn’t matter. So if Kai is going to be out for a few games, we will need him to remember that game last season and deliver similar results to us. He also scored in the game at Elland Road in a 4-0 win in January this year, so maybe he has a team that he likes playing against? That would be great if true, so my hope is that when we do get around to the proper football, he’s ready to go.

Of course, we’re assuming that he starts, and that Mikel Arteta doesn’t opt for Mikel Merino up top. Hey, we’ve been talking about it as fans, so it would be silly not to think that Arteta and his coaching staff aren’t thinking about it as a collective either.

Of course, what we might have in our favour, when it comes to Gyokeres, is that this international break might be good for him to get up to speed. They play Romania at home tonight, and one thing we do know about the Swede is that he plays. They play Isak wide left and Elanga wide right normally, and Big Vik gets minutes, so him playing tonight and then on Monday against Poland could be beneficial for us. He looked rusty, clunky, and not at the races with his cameo minutes. If he plays 60+ minutes in each of Sweden’s next four games, he comes back to Arsenal in a much better condition and match fitness level than he would have if we were just playing games right now. This is me looking on the glass-half-full side of things, which I’m minded to do for some reason, which is strange for me given how much I detest internationals.

As for the rest of them, well, the next two weeks are basically an exercise in trying to find out how many different lucky superstitions I can find. I’m looking for four-leaf clovers, horsehoes are going above doorways, I’m gonna do a Sunday roast with a chicken and insist that the wife pulls the wishbone with me, plus chucking salt over my shoulder whenever I see a salt shaker. I’m doing my bit; let’s just hope that the footballing gods can do theirs.

First up is Bruno G and Big Gabi tonight, as well as Calafiori for Italy, Gyokeres for Sweden, and Max for the England under-19s. Martin played yesterday and seems to be fine, which is great, and Tzolis marked his first game for Greece as an Arsenal player with a tidy finish, so both appear to be ok. We just need to wait with bated breath on the others.

Back tomorrow, having spent the last 24 hours crossing my fingers. Hopefully my hands aren’t too stiff to type. Speak then.