Charles Watts has claimed that while it remains unclear as to how long Takehiro Tomiyasu will be out injured "it looks bad" as Arsenal do their final checks before an official announcement.
What's the latest on Takehiro Tomiyasu and Arsenal?
The right-back picked up a knock in the recent Europa League match against Sporting Lisbon and was spotted leaving the Emirates on crutches.
He then missed the following game against Crystal Palace in the Premier League, which Arsenal won 4-1. Up to this stage, though, it the club are yet to officially reveal the full prognosis.
But according to Watts, it doesn't look particularly promising. Indeed, while talking on his own YouTube channel, the journalist revealed his latest understanding of the situation.
He explained (09:13) "I'm afraid Tomiyasu, again, it's not looking good. We know that…
"There's not been a kind of official announcement yet. They're still going through the final sort of checks. But it looks bad.
"All the comments coming from Arsenal are suggesting it's bad, but they're waiting to get the final results for all the tests that he's gone through."
Will Tomiyasu play against this season for Arsenal after injury?
Speaking to the press (via Evening Standard) after the Palace win, manager Mikel Arteta certainly didn't seem to sound too positive about the situation as he too waited for the final outcome of the ongoing tests on the player.
He said: “We’ve had one assessment, they need to have another assessment tomorrow, but it’s not looking good, that’s for sure.
“Looking at Tomi, he’s not someone who exaggerates things. He was really concerned straight away, and we are concerned.”
Seeing as there are now just ten games left to play before Arsenal finish their season – having been knocked out of the Europa League during the game in which Tomiyasu picked up his injury – it feels unlikely that the right-back will be fit to play again this term.
Of course, the club might get lucky but even if he can come back after a few weeks or months, it may still take him a while to get back to full fitness, leaving his window to play an important role in the rest of the season even smaller.
Ben White has actually been the first-choice right-back in north London this season, starting all but two of the 28 league games so far. But with Tomiyasu out, it puts a lot of pressure on the Englishman to stay fit for the final run-in.