Bukayo Saka is not finished. He is 25, he is on a contract until 2030, and he is still the player Arsenal look to in the biggest games. But 11 injuries since February 2023 tell us something has to change in how he is used.
The question is being asked more and more among Gooners as Saka sits out yet another spell, this time with the quad injury he picked up inside the opening ten minutes against Bayern Munich last month. Every return seems to come with the same expectation: straight back into the side, straight back to carrying the right flank.
We have gone through the numbers, and they don’t prove that anyone at the club caused these injuries. What they do show is a player who has been asked to do an enormous amount of football from a very young age, for club and country, with almost nobody trusted to share the load.
How much football has Saka actually played?
Over the last four years, Saka has played 148 games for Arsenal and another 34 for England. That is 182 appearances and 12,434 minutes, with 165 starts and 98 full 90s.
He has come off the bench just 17 times in that period, and he has been substituted 67 times, usually late on once a game was won, which is the only real protection he has been given. Put it all together and he has been on the pitch for 75.9% of all the regular-time minutes available to him.
| Saka, club and country (last four years) | Number |
|---|---|
| Arsenal appearances | 148 |
| England appearances | 34 |
| Minutes played | 12,434 |
| Starts | 165 |
| Full 90 minutes | 98 |
| Substituted off | 67 |
| Appearances from the bench | 17 |
| Share of available minutes played | 75.9% |
Go back a little further and it gets even starker. Between 2021 and 2024 he missed only three Premier League games, and he set an Arsenal club record of 83 consecutive Premier League appearances. He was the sixth-youngest player ever to reach 200 Premier League appearances, and he is now closing in on 300 games for the club at 25.
When did the Bukayo Saka injury problems start?
For his first few seasons, Saka barely missed a thing. In 2019-20 he lost 13 days to one injury and missed no games. The following season it was 13 days again, spread over three minor problems, and two games. In 2021-22 he missed a single game through injury.
Then the picture changes. In 2023-24 he was out for 36 days with two injuries and missed six games. In 2024-25 it was 122 days, three separate injuries and 25 games missed. Last season brought another 68 days out, three more injuries and 15 games missed. A hamstring tear was the longest lay-off of the lot, and it was followed by another hamstring problem, plus hip and Achilles issues.
And yet, despite all of that, he still played 49 times for Arsenal last season and went to the World Cup. That is the part that worries us most. Even in his worst years for injuries, the demand on him barely dropped.
Is the quad injury different?
The latest one is a quad problem, and the early updates were hard to read because of how much fluid had built up around the muscle. That fluid can mask what is happening underneath in the first few days, which is why the first estimate was a broad six to eight weeks.
Six to eight weeks would be fairly normal for a moderate tear in the quad. Problems inside the muscle tend to heal more quickly, while anything reaching the tendon, or the point where muscle and tendon join, needs a slower and more careful rehab, and carries more risk of coming back. Mikel Arteta’s latest word was much more hopeful, as he spoke of “very good symptoms” in his update on Saka’s injury, and the plan is for him to start working on the grass after the international break.
Has he really slowed down?
This is the claim we hear most, and the data doesn’t back it up. His average top speed is down by just 0.61 km/h compared with 2022-23. But he is making 76.5 fast runs (between 20 and 25 km/h) per 90 minutes this season, against 66.7 in 2022-23. That is roughly ten more fast runs a game than when he was supposedly at his freshest.
He is also still one of the hardest players in Europe to get the ball off. Tracking data puts him in the 99th percentile for tackle resistance, with only Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham scoring higher. Full-backs get tight to him, he takes the contact, and nearly every time he either wins the foul, recycles the ball or drives Arsenal up the pitch.
That is also the problem. A winger who is fouled that often and still asked to make that many high-intensity runs is carrying a heavy physical load, and it adds up.
Who is to blame for Saka’s workload?
Plenty of fans blame the coaching staff, for both club and country, for running him into the ground at a young age. We understand the frustration, but there are two separate arguments here.
The first is fair: Arsenal needed someone who could genuinely share Saka’s minutes a lot earlier than they got one. A back-up only matters if the manager trusts him enough to rest the star man, and for years Arteta had no such option on the right. The arrival of Noni Madueke was a step in the right direction, and he has shown in recent weeks that he can make it click as Arsenal’s stand-in for Saka.
The second argument, that the staff caused his muscle injuries, is a much bigger claim, and the appearance figures don’t prove it on their own. Arteta has never hidden his view, either. Back in 2022 he argued that the best players in the world play around 70 matches a season, every three days, and still make the difference, and that anyone who wants to be at the top has to be able to do that. Managers for club and country have their own jobs to protect, and they will pick their best players when those players are fit.
Saka’s style may have to change
Saka has now had trouble with both hamstrings, his hip, his Achilles and his quad. Problems like that don’t only affect the body. They make a player wonder whether he can trust it. The greats who lasted, the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah, adapted their games as they got older, and that is not a comparison of quality, just a reminder that age catches up with everyone.
Careers that start this early can go either way. James Milner and Gareth Barry played on for years. Wayne Rooney, Cesc Fàbregas and Raheem Sterling also had huge careers, but they show that starting young doesn’t guarantee you stay at your peak into your late 20s and 30s.
Is Bukayo Saka finished? Our verdict
No, and it isn’t close. This is a Hale End boy who stood up for Arsenal when hardly anyone else did, who turns up in the big games, and who is tied down until 2030 on a reported £300,000 a week. He isn’t going anywhere, and nor should he.
But Arsenal have to stop treating him like a conveyor belt: injured, a few weeks out, passed fit, straight back in, injured again. When this latest injury struck, the talk was all about the games Saka would miss and the date of his return. This time the club should bring him back only when he is properly 100% fit, not when he has simply passed the tests, and then use Madueke to manage his minutes rather than only to cover for him when he breaks down.
Club and country have taken a lot out of Saka. Protecting him now is how Arsenal get the next five years of him at his best.
