Arsene Wenger last night blamed Arsenal's injury crisis on a World Cup hangover.
Gunners boss Wenger may now even give French defender Laurent Koscielny a MONTH long rest until after next month's international break.
Koscielny has a chronic Achilles injury and Wenger is confident it needs rest rather than surgery but will not risk him despite facing a defensive shortage.
That comes on top of Mesut Ozil being ruled out for up to three months with a knee injury with Arsenal facing a full scale injury crisis before Saturday's clash with Hull.
Wenger is also without Olivier Giroud and Mathieu Debuchy who played for France at the World Cup while Aaron Ramsey does not return from injury until next week's Champions League trip to Anderlecht.
However, Wenger is confident that Arsenal - who appointed Germany's World Cup fitness coach Shad Forsythe in the summer - are making progress on improving their injury record and says the current crop are down to burnout from Brazil.
"There are a lot of post-World Cup injuries and not many soft tissue injuries," said Wenger. "I gave them (the World Cup players) until August 11, Germany played the final on 13 July, that was a month and should be enough after a big competition.
"For example, Giroud - I don't know what we can do about Giroud's injury. Debuchy was on his own when he did the ankle.
"Then you have Ozil. You know how Ozil did the injury? Passing the ball with the oustide of his left foot. He must have done that a million times. Ozil was on his own. He told me he just wanted to give the ball like that and heard a little crack.
"Koscielny has an Achilles problem, which has got worse. He finds it difficult to play with it at the moment. You can only trust what the players says, he does not feel ready to play and will not play on Saturday.
"An inflammation of an Achilles tendon, if you wait for it to be better, it can be a short time. If you want to get rid of it completely, it is long term.
"We will monitor him and as soon as he can take enough pain again he will play. No [he will not need surgery]. We have scanned him, there is no real deterioration of his achilles at all. It is just the pain of the inflammation.
"I think we have made progress. What's different is we have a bit more prevention than before for the players to prepare for the competition. For us this season, we had big injuries and coincidental injuries."
Wenger is faced with the prospect of playing Nacho Monreal as a makeshift centre half alongside Per Mertesacker against Hull with either rookie Hector Bellerin or midfielder Francis Coquelin at right back.
It is a major concern for Wenger but he says Ozil's enforced rest could be a blessing in disguise. Wenger also insisted that Ozil only told him he felt his knee "crack" after the scan was done last week.
"That is the only positive, that he (Ozil) will get the rest that he had not maybe enough after the World Cup," said Wenger. "Monreal has to show that he (can play there) on Saturday."