Watford could be without defender Craig Cathcart as well as captain Troy Deeney for this weekend’s Premier League clash against Arsenal.

Returning head coach Quique Sanchez Flores will be in charge for a Hornets’ game at Vicarage Road for the first time in over three years, but said he could be without the Northern Irish defender, who he simply stated had a “muscle problem”, while skipper Deeney remains sidelined following knee surgery a few weeks ago.

“We don’t have many injuries,” said Sanchez Flores.

“We have Deeney and Cathcart, they’re very important players, but when you don’t have them, or you have some players with injuries, you need to accept that as soon as possible, you need to think about the person who is able to play.

“Craig has something in his muscle and I think it’s something that will just keep him out for a short period.”

The 54-year-old arrived at the start of this week after he was announced as Javi Gracia’s replacement and said he has still not had enough time to work out his strongest team just yet because of a number of factors affecting their performance.

“It’s difficult, I have to know the players," he said.

“The first week you come here, it’s difficult to identify everything because there’s players who haven’t been playing for a long time and other players who have injuries and other players, they are playing but they don’t have confidence because the results aren’t good.

“You need to take all this and try to improve as soon as possible and we don’t have time.”