Arsenal: Mikel Arteta reveals ‘very unfortunate’ double injury blow after Leeds win – ‘we lost two players’
Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta has revealed that the Gunners have had a “very unfortunate” double injury blow with two players.
At the weekend, Arsenal returned to winning ways in the Premier League by battling back from behind to beat Leeds United 2-1 at the Emirates.
However, there has been bad news for Arsenal ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League group phase match against Ligue Un side Lille.
This is because Arteta has revealed that Martin Zubimendi and Piero Hincapie have both suffered injuries during warm-downs after Saturday’s match against Leeds.
“We had a training session planned for after the game for players that did not have enough minutes to get some recovery and rhythm,” Arteta told reporters.
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“In two very unfortunate actions we lost two players. Not great. We need to assess them today and have further scans to see where they are then we will have a timeframe on how long they are going to be out for.
“It’s far from ideal.”
Arteta also gave a cheeky response when asked how this incident could be avoided in the future, even though it has “never happened” in his seven years in charge of the Gunners.
“Very easy, you don’t train,” Arteta said.
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“If they never train then they don’t get injured, but the consequence to that is when they are needed play they have no rhythm and when you ask them to play they are going to have no impact in the game.
“That could happen at the Emirates – it never happened in seven years that I have been here. It could happen the next day in the training session. That has happened before and hopefully it doesn’t happen again.
“What can you do? If I had a crystal ball I would just say ‘guys, get in the Jacuzzi and I will see you tomorrow’.”
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On William Saliba being back on grass as he steps up his recovery, Arteta continued: “It’s been over a week, I think.
“He’s managing his load and building his capacity back up.
“In the next few weeks hopefully we can introduce him to team training.”
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