Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has revealed that up to eight Arsenal players could miss tomorrow afternoon’s Premier League match at Bournemouth, as the Gunners face a growing injury crisis.
Defender William Saliba and midfielder Fabio Vieira were omitted from Wednesday’s Carabao Cup win at Brentford due to injury, and the pair will be assessed this afternoon before Arsenal make their way down to the south coast.
England internationals Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka along with wingers Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli have all still not rejoined first-team training since last Sunday’s North London derby draw against Tottenham. Arteta has said all first-team players will be closely monitored in training later today before he makes a final decision on tomorrow’s team selection.
Arteta said: “He [Declan] wasn’t available. He had to leave the London Derby and he hasn’t trained yet. We have another session in an hour or two so we’ll have more news about him today.
“Again, he [Martinelli] hasn’t trained. We want him back, we need him back, but at the moment he’s not been available.” They are all in the same pool. Willy as well had a knock. Fabio wasn’t involved in the last game.
“We have a few. We have to see and adapt to the situation because that’s a big number.” They weren’t selected for a reason. We need to assess them today.”
Including long-term absentee Jurrien Timber, as well as Thomas Partey’s injury earlier this month, Arteta now faces a worrying scenario where eight first-team players are unavailable for tomorrow’s match.
The 42-year-old Spaniard suggested there is not a sole cause behind this spate of injuries, but admits he is hoping to see players returning soon to help the Gunners handle a packed fixture list.
“Some of them (the injuries) happened in training, some of them were knocks, some very small niggles, muscular niggles, but as well [due to] the load. Coming [back] from the national team, the load went through the roof, the demands continue to be really high and the fact that we had three or four out already didn’t give enough time for some of them to have the exposure they needed.”
“My hope is that everybody is fit and available, because we need them with the amount of games that we have already under the belt in the last two weeks and what is coming in the next seven to 10 days. We need them, so hopefully today we get some good news.”
