Arsenal entered the build-up to Wednesday\u2019s Champions League trip to Club Brugge with fresh fitness questions after Declan Rice did not take part in the club\u2019s open training session. Rice also failed to emerge for Tuesday\u2019s training with the rest of Mikel Arteta\u2019s squad, and no explanation has been provided for his absence. It is unclear whether the issue is connected to the injury he suffered against Brentford six days earlier.<\/p>\n
Arteta is expected to give an update on the England international in his prematch press conference on Tuesday. The timing is delicate: Arsenal remain the only side with a perfect record in this season\u2019s Champions League league phase, having picked up 15 points from their first five games, but defeat in Belgium would cost them top spot in the group.<\/p>\n
Rice was not the only influential player absent from Tuesday\u2019s session. Leandro Trossard, who returned from an ankle injury to score against Villa, was also not spotted at training. The ongoing absence of centre back William Saliba remains a significant problem for Arteta. The manager claimed Saliba was “days” away from a return before the Brentford game, but Saliba now stands to miss a fourth consecutive outing across all competitions if he does not recover before Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Gabriel is also sidelined with an injury that may have brought his 2025 to an abrupt end. Arteta recently confessed Arsenal may have to do without the pair for “a period of time .” Cristian Mosquera is facing his own extended spell on the treatment table, a situation that has prompted Arteta to open the door to a centre back signing once the January transfer window opens.<\/p>\n
For now, Piero Hincapi\u00e9 is the only natural centre back available. The squad contains several versatile options: Jurri\u00ebn Timber played centrally last time out against Villa, while Ben White and Riccardo Calafiori can operate at both centre back and fullback. Arteta must manage that versatility as he prepares his team for a potentially decisive match in Belgium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Declan Rice missed Tuesday training before Club Brugge. Saliba, Gabriel and others remain sidelined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1303],"tags":[947,1312,1047],"class_list":["post-4991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-news","tag-ankle-injury","tag-arsenal-fitness","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4991","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=4991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}