Arsenal boss has given the latest injury on his squad ahead of the Champions League clash against Club Brugge.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has delivered an injury update ahead of their Champions League showdown with Club Brugge. He has confirmed that Declan Rice, William Saliba and Leandro Trossard will all miss the fixture through injury and illness.
Questions had been swirling around the availability of both Rice and Saliba heading into the encounter, with Saliba sidelined for Arsenal’s previous three Premier League outings due to injury. Rice had been considered doubtful for last weekend’s match vs Aston Villa, yet he managed to complete the entire 90 minutes during the disappointing 2-1 defeat.
During preparation for the Club Brugge fixture, the trio were notably absent from training sessions, prompting Arteta to address Arsenal’s mounting injury crisis. Speaking at his pre-match press conference, he revealed: “No, so Declan was ill.
READ MORE: Paul Scholes makes fresh Arsenal title prediction with Man City warning – “no chance”READ MORE: Matty Cash responds to Aston Villa title talk as ‘massive test’ passed
“He was quite sick after the game already and he hasn’t travelled. William is out.
“Leo too, he picked up another knock where he had the issue, I don’t expect it for long but he’s out.”
The Gunners have also been dealt another setback with promising youngster Max Dowman sustaining an injury while representing the club’s Development squad.
Gabriel Jesus has subsequently been drafted into the Champions League squad to replace him, though this means the talented teenager is now ineligible to feature in the competition for 60 days.
“First of all with Max he picked up an injury last weekend and he had to come off and we did some scans and he’s going to be out for weeks,” Arteta explained.
“We were expecting him to train in December (Jesus) but he’s worked and worked and worked and we had the possibility to make a swap and we’ve done it.”
On the topic of injuries, Arteta said: “Frustrating losing Max, losing Leo, we lost big Gabi (Gabriel Magalhaes) and we have other players that we have certain minutes.
“We have managed that since the start of the season.
“Training, no, because we don’t have time to train. You are missing players you are loading players more.”
He continued: “I think you have to separate the kind of injuries that they are, long term, acute injuries with key players.
“It is something that we are constantly looking at.
“It’s not only one season we are looking at, some players have played 150 games in a few seasons. The moment you have one injury you are more likely to have another injury, so we are on it.”
This update means that the trio join the likes of Kai Havertz, Gabriel, Cristhian Mosquera and Dowman on the injury list.
