London: Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud has been ruled out of Friday’s Premier League match against fierce rivals Liverpool with a hamstring injury, manager Arsene Wenger has said.
Giroud, who has scored seven goals this season, was substituted in the second half of Arsenal’s 1-0 victory over West Ham United in the League Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday and will undergo scans on Thursday to assess the damage.
“It doesn’t look very good for him,” Wenger told reporters after the victory. “I think he’s out of Friday night.
“We have to wait. Nowadays you do the scan 48 hours after the injury. That will happen on Thursday, then we’ll have a precise kind of grade on what his hamstring is.
“When you listen to him, the pain is quite big, but the grade is not always linked with the intensity of the pain.”
Midfielder Francis Coquelin was also substituted in the final stages of Tuesday’s match with a knock but Wenger expects the 26-year-old to be fit to face their fellow top four contenders.
Arsenal are fifth in the league, a point and a place behind Liverpool, and host the Merseyside club at the Emirates.
