Arsenal head into the September-October international break with their defensive picture still unsettled, even if there has been some welcome movement in training. The week has brought both encouragement and concern, with Ezri Konsa\u2019s withdrawal from the England squad standing out as the main worry.<\/p>\n
There is better news on Ben White, Piero Hincapi\u00e9 and Cristhian Mosquera, all of whom are back on the training pitch. White and Mosquera were unavailable for Arsenal\u2019s 3\u20130 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion before club football paused, while Hincapi\u00e9 was named among the substitutes for that match and then did not report for Ecuador duty.<\/p>\n
Konsa\u2019s situation is more troubling. According to England manager Thomas Tuchel, the defender had been carrying discomfort in recent weeks, which suggests his involvement for the Three Lions was always a risk. He played 90 minutes against Spain, missed the win over Czechia, and then completed another full match in the victory over Croatia.<\/p>\n
\u201cEzri came into camp with discomfort. [He] played against Spain which made it worse. He stayed in camp and tried everything for the match in Croatia and gave the green light,\u201d Tuchel explained, which is sure to annoy Arsenal fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, he got another hit on the quad and it caused some light trauma. We decided to not let him play through the pain again. Nothing major but not worth taking the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
That leaves a question mark over Konsa\u2019s availability for Saturday\u2019s Premier League meeting with Leeds United. He was brought in late in the summer window and has already been used next to Gabriel because William Saliba is sidelined with a back injury. Saliba is not expected back until November at the earliest, so Mosquera may be the next option to step in, even if his match fitness is uncertain.<\/p>\n
White and Hincapi\u00e9 are natural centre backs who have been adapted since joining the club, though White could still be required at right back. Jurrien Timber started against Brighton and played for an hour before being replaced by Mart\u00edn Zubimendi, who has become a familiar defensive option despite being out of favour in midfield. Timber, who has spent an estimated 461 days injured since arriving in the summer of 2023, is aware of the need for caution.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to be very smart about the steps we take. Otherwise, I\u2019ll suffer a setback, and I don\u2019t want that,\u201d Timber told reporters this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal\u2019s defensive options improve in training, but Konsa\u2019s injury concern leaves Saturday in doubt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1303,702],"tags":[1836,242,180],"class_list":["post-21661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-news","category-leeds-united","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-injury","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21661","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=21661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}