Arsene Wenger confirmed that Henrikh Mkhitaryan had suffered a recurrence of the knee injury that has sidelined him for much of the past month.

Mkhitaryan made his return to the Arsenal side in Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at his former club Manchester United, scoring a goal in an impressive display that lasted until the 76th minute, when he was replaced by Joe Willock.

The Armenian playmaker was not the only one to suffer an injury ahead of Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg away to Atletico Madrid, where Mkhitaryan was expected to start.

“Mkhitatryan I took off because he had a little knock on his knee again, the same thing, just looking at him in the dressing room,” Wenger said.

“[David] Ospina has a rib problem and Alex Iwobi has a hamstring problem.

“We’ll see how everyone recovers because Thursday will come around very quickly.”

Wenger was unable to confirm whether any of the three would be available for Thursday’s game with the trio set to be monitored over the next 48 hours.