Cologne lose Dominic Maroh and Jhon Cordoba for rest of 2017 with injuries suffered in Arsenal win

Struggling FC Cologne's joy at stunning Arsenal to collect just their second win of the 2017-18 season on Thursday night (23 November) looks to have been short-lived after two more key players were added to the lengthy injury list of the Bundesliga's bottom club.

French forward Sehrou Guirassy netted the only goal of the game from the penalty spot in the second half at the atmospheric RheinEnergieStadion after falling under minimal contact from compatriot Mathieu Debuchy, although the win - which kept the hosts in contention for a runners-up spot in Group H ahead of their trip to Red Star Belgrade next month - came at a significant cost with Dominic Maroh and Jhon Cordoba both forced off.

Centre-back Maroh, captaining Cologne with experienced midfielder Matthias Lehmann a substitute and vice-skipper Jonas Hector out with damaged ankle ligaments suffered in the initial clash with Arsenal in September, was replaced by left-back Konstantin Rausch after 38 minutes after suffering a hamstring injury during a challenge with Olivier Giroud.

Striker Cordoba, meanwhile, could not replicate his stunning goal at the Emirates Stadium from earlier this season and made way for Pawel Olkowski shortly before Guirassy's contentious winner.

With Simon Zoller and Leonardo Bittencourt recently added to a treatment room that already contained Hector, Marcel Risse, Dominique Heintz, Christian Clemens and Marco Hoger, the last thing embattled head coach Peter Stoger needed was yet more injury woe.

However, Cologne, fifth-place finishers last term who have lost 10 and won none of their opening 12 league games in 2017-18, have now confirmed via Twitter following MRI scans that the muscle problems sustained by Maroh and Cordoba - listed as right thigh and left thigh respectively - against Arsenal will keep them sidelined for the remainder of the calendar year.

If that was not bad enough, the Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger report that summer signing Joao Queiros will also not play again before the winter break due to a transverse process fracture in the lumbar region picked up during training.

That leaves Stoger extremely short of central defensive options for Sunday's [26 November] visit of Hertha Berlin to North Rhine-Westphalia, with Frederik Sorensen - who started alongside Maroh against Arsenal - incurring an automatic one-match suspension after collecting his fifth yellow card of the season during the 1-0 loss at Mainz last weekend.

Much-changed Arsenal appeared to come through the match unscathed by contrast, with Arsene Wenger, whose side still confirmed their place as group winners despite the defeat courtesy of Red Star's goalless draw against BATE Borisov in Belarus, insisting that it was always the plan to substitute injury-prone frontman Danny Welbeck on his first appearance for almost six weeks following groin and hamstring trouble.

"Medically, the risk was too great to play him for longer than that," he said. "He was ready to stay on and frustrated to come off, but he's in good shape."