Arsenal midfielder Mariona Caldentey is expected to miss about two months of Women’s Super League action because of a hamstring injury.

The Spain international suffered the injury during Arsenal’s 4-2 defeat at Manchester City on 4 October.

Caldentey has been a key player for Arsenal since joining from Barcelona two years ago and was the 2024-25 WSL Player of the Year.

“Mariona [Caldentey] went off against Manchester City and didn’t go away with Spain. It’s a hamstring injury so she will be out for a while,” said Arsenal manager Renee Slegers.

“It’s a bigger hamstring injury. The estimation right now is between eight to 10 weeks. We’ll see.

“We’re re-scanning and the healing process looks good. Of course, we’re hoping for less [time out], but it’s a bigger hamstring injury.”

Caldentey’s absence is a blow to Arsenal who return to WSL action on Saturday when they host Birmingham City (12:45 BST).

The Gunners have had a disappointing start to their campaign, winning just one of their opening five WSL matches, leading to questions over Slegers’ position.

They sit 10th in the table and will be without injured England forward Chloe Kelly and German summer signing Selina Cerci on Saturday.

“Selina had surgery on her knee. She had been struggling and it got worse, so we had to intervene unfortunately,” said Slegers.

“She’s out as well for a while. It’s one of the reasons why it was harder for Selina to get into the team because she missed some parts of pre-season.

“She has been available and has trained the majority of sessions, but of course it affects the player when you’re managing something.

“Germany did a scan and the best solution going forward was to clean [the knee] up with surgery.”