The exciting winger was stretchered off after his knee appeared to buckle just 20 minutes into his long-awaited Celtic debut, having caught the eye off the bench in Thursday morning’s (AEDT) 5-0 rout of Dundee.
An MRI scan later today will reveal the exact location of the injury and its severity.
But Celtic’s medical staff have contradicted worrying reports detailing fears of an ACL rupture, instead coming to the initial conclusion that Arzani may have torn a lateral or medial collateral ligament and/or shredded a portion of his meniscus.
An ACL would rule the 19-year-old out for between nine and 12 months, as opposed to two months with an MCL or LCL.
A meniscus injury might add a few weeks to that, but Arzani is said to be optimistic that he will be back in training within eight weeks.
And he is still optimistic he might yet be fit for the Asian Cup.
Australia open their defence of the trophy against Jordan on January 6 in the UAE, and at this point Arzani is touch and go for the tournament, pending the outcome of the MRI and the pace of his rehabilitation.
If the scan confirms the latest diagnosis of the Hoops' medical staff, it will be a huge relief for the club - with coach Brendan Rodgers impressed with his vision and darting runs after coming on as a 57th-minute substitute at Dens Park.
Rodgers’ initial thoughts on the injury were “it didn’t appear so bad”.
However, subsequent reports seemed to fly in the face of such optimism, prior to the latest updates.
“He’s [Arzani] a talented boy, just a bit adapting really to our style of football and to our game and he’s settled in very very well,” Rodgers said.
“Just building up his confidence to come and play, just a bit unfortunate he had to go off. He certainly is happy to take the ball, he has confidence, he’s a Celtic player in terms of, he wants to beat people and wants to be aggressive.
“Unfortunately, he got injured so we’ll have to see how that is.
“He’s a really really good kid, he’s a super bright boy, he wants to do well for Celtic and we’ll just have to see tomorrow he’s probably going to need a scan on his knee.”
