Arsenal face a defensive selection squeeze after manager Mikel Arteta confirmed William Saliba has suffered a setback while trying to recover from a minor ankle problem. Saliba has been unable to train with the squad for the past few weeks and his fitness now remains uncertain ahead of Saturday\u2019s meeting with Wolverhampton Wanderers.<\/p>\n
Arteta initially played down the situation before admitting the interruption had required the medical team to change course. \u201cWe have to wait and see, yesterday he didn\u2019t train. We have an extra day, let\u2019s see if he can [play] tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Explaining how a small issue escalated, the manager outlined the sequence that forced Saliba to stop working with the group. \u201cIt was something quite small,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt came from an ankle injury that he had, and then he started to modify the way he was running and all that, and he started to overload an area, which is something common.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at some point, it became uncomfortable to continue training and playing, and we had to stop. He looks better but we have to wait and see if it\u2019s enough for him to be able to train with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The centre back\u2019s absence is compounded by other defensive and midfield availability issues. Gabriel and Cristhian Mosquera are sidelined, while Jurri\u00ebn Timber is dealing with a knock, narrowing Arteta\u2019s options for the weekend.<\/p>\n
Midfield cover is also in question after Declan Rice missed the 3\u20130 Champions League win over Club Brugge with an illness. Timber and winger Leandro Trossard were also ruled out for that game.<\/p>\n
On Timber, Arteta said: \u201cIt depends how he feels today. It was a knock that he picked [up] and he wasn\u2019t feeling comfortable. Whether it\u2019s tomorrow or not we will see.\u201d On Rice: \u201cLet\u2019s see how he goes today, he was ill. Normally in a few days, but let\u2019s see how he gets on.\u201d Trossard\u2019s return was also described as a \u201cmatter of days,\u201d and Arteta confirmed there were no fresh injuries from the victory over Brugge.<\/p>\n
Any absence among the trio would further constrain selection as Arsenal prepare for a match that could affect their standing in the Premier League table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta admits Saliba setback from ankle issue leaves Arsenal thin at centre back ahead of Wolves…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,969],"tags":[947,1047],"class_list":["post-5044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-premier-league","tag-ankle-injury","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5044","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=5044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}