Both Declan Rice and William Saliba will miss Arsenal’s trip to face Club Brugge in the Champions League on Wednesday as Mikel Arteta addresses their fitness issues.
The Gunners are looking to bounce back after their Premier League defeat to Aston Villa at the weekend, which has seen their lead at the top of the table cut.
Arteta’s men are still in an excellent position, two points clear at the top of the Premier League and also sitting top of the Champions League group stage table with five wins from five games.
However, they are just in a difficult patch, not helped by injuries to a string of Arteta’s first team.
Gabriel Magalhaes, Kai Havertz and Cristhian Mosquera remain sidelined, while the manager confirmed that the trio of Rice, Saliba and Leandro Trossard will not feature in midweek.
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Arsenal fans will be buoyed by the fact that Rice has not picked up an injury, but was ill after the Villa loss, so will return to action soon.
‘No, so Declan was ill. He was quite sick after the game, and he hasn’t travelled with us,’ explained Arteta.
‘William is still not available, and Leo again picked another knock in an area where he had the issue, and I don’t expect that it’s going to be long, but unfortunately, he cannot be here.’
Teenage sensation Max Dowman has also suffered an injury blow, likely to be out for a couple of months with ankle ligament damage.
Dowman has been replaced in Arsenal’s Champions League squad by Gabriel Jesus, who is close to a return from his own injury nightmare, having been out for nearly a year with a serious knee problem.
‘Unfortunately, Max picked up an injury last weekend and had to come off,’ said Arteta. ‘So he did some scans and he is going to be out for weeks and then we have the situation of Gabi [Jesus], who we were expecting to be training with us by the end of December.
‘Gabi has been pushing every single day and he kept telling everybody “I am going to be earlier, earlier, earlier” and he has done it. So thanks to his work and all the work that the medical staff have done in all these months, and we had the possibility to make a swap there and we have done it.
‘Yes, on one side, you see Max and the situation and on the other, you see the joy and how happy Gabi is to be back in the Champions League.’
Arteta admitted that ongoing injury headaches are proving to be a frustration, saying: ‘Yeah, a big one. Losing Max again, it’s obviously not ideal with Leo, who is just coming back, that we have to manage the minutes.
‘Willy is still not there. We’ve not got Big Gabi, and we have other players that they could only play certain minutes. Like, for example, Riccy [Calafiori] the other day.
‘But it’s a situation that we have managed since the beginning of the season. We are in December, so it’s been almost five months in a remarkable way, and we’re going to continue.’
After their Champions League outing on Wednesday, Arsenal host Wolves in the Premier League on Saturday evening.