EPL: Arsenal Suffer Major Injury Blow Ahead Of Leicester City clash

Arsenal are likely to be without defender, Sokratis Papastathopoulos for Monday’s clash against Leicester City.

The Gunners will be in search of their 10th straight win in all competitions and it appears like Sokratis will miss out.

He has been a huge influence at the heart of Unai Emery’s defence this season but the 30-year-old picked up an ankle injury on international duty early this week.

However, Rob Holding is likely to step in after Sokratis was not spotted at Sunday’s training session held in London Colney.

The club captain Laurent Koscielny is back in contention having returned to full training following the Achilles injury he picked up in last season’s Europa League semi final second leg defeat against Atletico Madrid.

Emery is delighted to call upon the Frenchman again but insists he will gradually ease him back into the first team picture.

“We need to be calm with him. Calm because we need [to wait] more than a month,” Emery told Arsenal’s official website.

“He needs to feel [well] first, if he is doing some things, then he is doing well.

“Then when he can play and available for games in the training, [then] we can think he is okay to play.

“He is very important for us because he is our captain. He is starting this week to do some training with us together and it is very, very good news for us.

“I think we need also to give confidence to him, to be close with us, because it was a big injury. But now he is getting better, he is training with us in some things and this is very positive.”