Arsenal winger sparked fears of an injury problem with a post on his Instagram story on Thursday, writing “back soon” along with black and white pictures of himself in training.
Unfortunately, James Benge has since confirmed Nelson is facing a couple of months on the sidelines with a quad injury.
Nelson had featured and scored for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal team in pre-season, before making the bench for the Premier League opener against Crystal Palace.
Whilst it was unlikely he was about to break straight into the league starting lineup, it certainly seemed possible Nelson would get chances to impress in the Europa League. Take those opportunities and you never know what might come next.
Instead, it looks like Arsenal will be relying on other options for the early Europa League group games.
Arteta has Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka in the starting lineup at the moment, with Emile Smith Rowe and Nicolas Pepe for cover, as well as perhaps Marquinhos. So he’ll hope that’s enough for the next couple of months.
Nelson spent last season on loan with Feyenoord, playing 33 times and directly contributing to 11 goals. Many of those goals came in the final few months of the season, as he finished on a high.
With his injury impacting his chances to carry that form into this season, Nelson will have to start from scratch once again.