The 23-year-old suffered a muscle tear in his right leg in the first half of last week's 5-1 win over Crystal Palace.
"He had a procedure, everything went well," Arteta said in a press conference after Arsenal's 1-0 win over Ipswich. "But unfortunately he will be out for many, many weeks," the Spaniard added.
When pressed for an exact timeframe, Arteta said: “I think it will be more than two months. I don’t know exactly how long. I think it will depend on how the scar tissue starts to heal in the first week or how much mobility it has. We’ll see. It’s difficult to say.”
Arsenal struggled against Ipswich, despite creating many chances. They only scored 1 goal through Kai Havertz. This victory helped Arsenal rise to 2nd place in the rankings, 6 points behind the leader Liverpool.
Arteta is more optimistic about Raheem Sterling's injury prognosis, after Arsenal initially feared the winger would also be sidelined for a long time with a knee problem.
On Arsenal's performance, Arteta added: "I'm very happy with the win, the clean sheet and some parts of the game. It was a very difficult opponent for us after a long run of games. Arsenal should have scored more goals because our defence was excellent and that always gave us the chance to win."
