Walsall crock Krystian Bielik is back with Arsenal

The 20-year-old joined the Saddlers on a temporary basis from Arsenal back in January as he looked to work his way back to full fitness following a knee injury.

But a hamstring problem then delayed his progress with Bielik not able to train with Walsall until a fortnight ago.

Earlier this week, the youngster said he was looking forward to playing a major role for the Saddlers in their last eight games of the season after working his way back to full fitness.

But he has now suffered a recurrence of his hamstring injury and is likely to be out for a minimum of three weeks.

“Krystian has had a flare up of his previous hamstring injury,” said boss Dean Keates.

“We had him in last week, Arsenal told us he was ready to come back in. He trained twice last week and the early part of this week.

“But he has picked up another problem with his hamstring.

“He’s going to go back down to Arsenal and we will see how it progresses from there.

“He is on loan with us so he will now go back to Arsenal to be assessed.”

Meanwhile, Keates has vowed to be his own man at Walsall whilst also tapping into the knowledge of the club’s coaching staff.

The 39-year-old was appointed manager earlier this month following the sacking of Jon Whitney.

And over the past 10 days he has spent time getting to know both the players and the coaching staff in order to move the club forward.

“I have come in and it’s only myself who has come in – everyone else is still in place,” Keates said.

“It’s me speaking to everybody.

“I have listened to their opinions but ultimately I have had to form my own opinion.

“These past 10 days have been massive for me to assess the players and see where I feel they can fit into the club going forward.

“The staff here have got a wealth of experience so I’d be fool not to be conversation with them.”