Arsene Wenger has concerns now Andre Santos is out until 2012
Left-back Santos suffered an ankle injury in the Gunners' final Champions League group stage game against Olympiakos on Tuesday, with scans immediately arranged to uncover the extent of the damage when the Brazilian returned to London.
And Wenger has now revealed that the summer signing will be out for at least three weeks, possibly much longer, after scans revealed more damage than first hoped.
"The bad news we have is that we lost Santos for a while. The ankle injury is more severe than expected," Wenger said. "For how long he will be out I don't know, but it will be more than three weeks that's for sure."
With Bacary Sagna and Carl Jenkinson already sidelined at right-back, and Kieran Gibbs still a few weeks away from returning to the first-team on the other side, Wenger has something of a defensive crisis on his hands.
Thomas Vermaelen and Johan Djourou may be asked to play out of position against Everton this weekend.
"He [Santos] is definitely out for the Christmas period, and with Gibbs still being out - he is not available - we now have a problem on both flanks," the Frenchman noted. "Two right full-backs out and two left full-backs out."
Goalkeepers Vito Mannone (shoulder) and Lukasz Fabianski (cut knee) are also sidelined with injuries they sustained in midweek, so Manuel Almunia has been recalled to the squad and will serve as the back-up to Wojciech Szczesny.
"Almunia will be back in the squad," he said. "Everybody else who was out there in Greece looks available, and the players who stayed at home are available as well."
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