Mikel Arteta defended injury-hit Arsenal’s training methods despite admitting his side are in a “dangerous” situation with their fitness problems.
Leandro Trossard did not travel to Belgium for Arsenal’s Champions League group phase clash with Club Brugge on Wednesday after suffering an injury in Saturday’s Premier League defeat at Aston Villa.
Centre-backs William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Cristhian Mosquera are all sidelined, while German forward Kai Havertz remains out of action and Declan Rice will miss the Brugge tie due to illness.
Adding to Arteta’s problems, promising 15-year-old winger Max Dowman sustained an ankle injury during a behind-closed-doors friendly on Saturday.
Follow The Standard
channel
on WhatsApp
Dowman has been withdrawn from Arsenal’s Champions League squad, meaning he cannot play in the competition again until the knockout stages.
Arsenal have suffered 95 injuries since the start of last season, including 28 this term.
But, asked if he is pushing his players too hard on the training ground, Arteta said: “No, because we don’t have time to train.
“Today we’ve done 20 minutes, so surely it’s not because we overtrained the players.
“But obviously when you are missing players, you are loading other players and there is a consequence to that, and it’s a really dangerous circle.”
Injuries to the likes of Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard were critical in Arsenal’s failure to keep pace with Liverpool in the Premier League title race last term.
Despite their latest rash of injuries, Arsenal sit on top the Premier League and are also on course for the Champions League last 16.
Arteta insisted Arsenal’s coaches and medical staff were constantly assessing the health of their players in a bid to ease the injury crisis.
“You have to separate the kind of injuries. Some of them have been long term, and some have been acute injuries,” said Arteta, who saw Arsenal’s 18-match unbeaten run in all competitions come to an end at Villa last weekend.
“It’s something that we are constantly looking at. We have played a lot of games with a lot of players missing and that puts a lot of stress, and then you get more injuries.”
In a rare injury boost to Arteta, Gabriel Jesus could make his first Arsenal appearance in 332 days against Brugge.
The Brazil striker has been sidelined since he ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in Arsenal’s FA Cup third round defeat against Manchester United in January.