Arsenal\u2019s international break has delivered another uneasy moment, with Christos Tzolis joining a growing list of fitness concerns around Mikel Arteta\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n
The winger\u2019s evening in Thessaloniki turned quickly in the 16th minute, when he went to ground holding his hamstring during the clash with the Netherlands. He received treatment and seemed intent on continuing, but manager Ivan Jovanovi\u0107 decided otherwise and ordered him off. Tzolis was unhappy with the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m his coach, I tell him to come out and he says, \u2018I\u2019m not coming out,\u2019\u201d Jovanovi\u0107 revealed postgame. \u201cThis is something that can characterize the Greek and all these kids who come to play for the national team regardless of age. I think it was a scene that everyone saw, those who were nearby. I told him to get out, because I suspected that he wouldn\u2019t have done that [asked for treatment] if he hadn\u2019t felt something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jovanovi\u0107 later said Tzolis had suffered a \u201cmuscular problem\u201d and added: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a problem, like an ankle or something else,\u201d the manager outlined. \u201cWhen it\u2019s muscular issues, that, along with the doctors, with the immediate information I have, was the reason I asked for him to come out immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further scans are due before Greece meet Germany this weekend, leaving his availability uncertain. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how much damage was done today, but I hoped it was just a twitch, something temporary,\u201d Jovanovi\u0107 shrugged.<\/p>\n
For Arsenal, the concern lands amid a broader run of setbacks. Declan Rice was ruled out before Thomas Tuchel could assess him, while Kai Havertz lasted only 30 minutes before a clash with Quinten Timber forced him off. The German FA later confirmed Havertz had suffered a \u201cmuscle strain,\u201d with no recovery timeline given.<\/p>\n
Rice remains a doubt for Arsenal\u2019s Premier League return against Leeds United on Saturday, Oct. 10, while Havertz may yet recover in time for next weekend, though Arteta will be cautious after his striker\u2019s recent injury record. Since tearing his hamstring in February 2025, Havertz has missed 26 matches with various muscular complaints. Tzolis, meanwhile, has started all five of Arsenal\u2019s Premier League fixtures so far and had arrived with a strong injury record, making this latest scare particularly unwelcome for the club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tzolis, Rice and Havertz add to Arsenal\u2019s growing injury concerns during the international break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[1836,242,180],"class_list":["post-21169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-injury","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}