Mikel Arteta faced the press this evening ahead of tomorrow night’s Champions League tie with Club Brugge.
Declan Rice has not travelled with the squad due to illness, the Arsenal manager revealed, saying, “Declan was ill, he was quite sick after the game [against Aston Villa]. He has not travelled with us.”
On Trossard there has been an aggravation of the calf issue which sidelined him for a couple of games, although the expectation is he won’t be out for too long.
William Saliba remains absent after picking up an unspecified injury just before the draw with Chelsea, an issue Arteta insisted was just a ‘matter of days’. Technically that remains true, but it’s now probably more days than people had first anticipated.
There’s also an issue for Max Dowman, who picked up an ankle knock last weekend, and according to the boss he’ll be out for some weeks.
On the plus side though, Gabriel Jesus has been added to the squad and is available to play a part tomorrow night. Explaining that process, Arteta said, “So first of all with Max, unfortunately he picked an injury last weekend and he had to come off. So we did some scans and he is going to be out for weeks.
“And then we have the situation of Gabi, who we were expecting to be training with us by the end of December. But 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 with him throughout these months.”
