Arsenal forward Vivianne Miedema has suffered another injury setback after head coach Jonas Eidevall revealed she requires knee surgery.
The 27-year-old Netherlands international missed almost 10 months last year following an ACL injury suffered in December 2022.
She has made just four Women’s Super League appearances since returning to action in October and now faces “several weeks” back on the sidelines.
“She requires a minor knee surgery and that is going to have her off the pitch for several weeks,” Eidevall said.
“We will have an update on that after the surgery and when we see how she is progressing.”
Miedema had played for the Dutch in the recent international break but Eidevall played down any suggestions of a club versus country row as a result.
“We have good communication with all the national teams that we work with,” he added.
“But we also have to have a lot of respect for the autonomy in the decision-making and the Netherlands were playing some really, really important games for them – both for a Nations League trophy and maybe, more importantly, for Olympic qualification.
“They also need to take the decisions that are best for them. What is important in all these conversations is that I always think that we put the player in the forefront and we are trying to find solutions that are the best for the player, and we need to cooperate.
“She doesn’t need the surgery because of those 45 minutes she played against Spain. She would have needed the surgery anyway for it.
“It was nothing that the Dutch team did that complicated this here or made the situation worse. It was a situation that needed to be fixed anyway.”
