Arsenal have moved to replace Max Dowman in their Champions League squad after the youngster sustained an ankle injury while featuring in an U21 friendly against Manchester United. The club said Dowman picked up the problem in that match, which also included Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta had left Gabriel Jesus out of the travelling party that lost 2\u20131 to Aston Villa in Birmingham so the forward could get meaningful minutes with the U21s. With Dowman now sidelined, Arsenal have used the one permitted amendment to their league phase list under the UEFA rule introduced at the start of the season and registered Jesus ahead of the knockout stage. The club noted the change without giving further detail on the severity of Dowman\u2019s injury.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old forward is immediately eligible for Wednesday night\u2019s trip to face Club Brugge, though whether Arteta will select him straight away is not certain. Arsenal\u2019s fitness record remains a concern: since the start of last season the club have recorded 93 different injuries, a total topped only by Brighton & Hove Albion among Premier League teams, per Sky Sports News.<\/p>\n
The Gunners began the Champions League league phase with five wins from five, leaving their progression largely secure, but Club Brugge should not be underestimated, “just ask Barcelona .” Saturday\u2019s Premier League fixture against Wolverhampton Wanderers, who have collected two points so far, may provide a less pressured setting for Jesus to return to club action.<\/p>\n
UEFA rules enforce a 60-day delay before any player dropped from a squad for medical reasons can return to the competition. Dowman may be re-registered in January but will not be available for selection until Feb. 6, 2026, by which time Arsenal will have completed all eight league phase fixtures. Barring a significant collapse, Arsenal are expected to avoid the knockout playoff and proceed directly to the last 16, with first legs scheduled for March 10\u201311, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Max Dowman out for rest of calendar year; Gabriel Jesus added to Arsenal Champions League list. Wed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1303],"tags":[947,1312,1047],"class_list":["post-4999","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\/4999","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=4999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}