Laurent Koscielny hobbled off in Arsenal U21’s 1-2 defeat to Portsmouth in Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday night raising alarms of his road to recovery.
However, Arsenal Under 21 head coach Freddie Ljungberg has revealed the Gunners’ skipper was merely suffering from cramp.
The Frenchman was taken off with only five minutes remaining at Fratton Park but Ljungberg was quick to erase any doubt of Koscielny suffering a setback after he ruptured his Achilles back in May.
The 33-year-old defender was using the match to get more minutes under belt following a 45-minute appearance for the U23s versus Derby County last month.
“It was a bit sad [because] he signaled to me before their goal that he had a cramp. I told him to go down, he wasn’t injured. It was just cramp, but unfortunately, he couldn’t move. We understood that he wasn’t worried at all, it was just some cramp,” he said.
Nathan Tomey replaced Koscielny for the remainder of the game as Portsmouth held on for the win and progressed into the knockout stages of the competition.
