Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed Declan Rice will be among the list of players absent for the Gunners’ Champions League clash against Club Brugge on Wednesday.
Arteta’s side are currently top of the 36-team table and remain the only team in the competition to have a 100% record so far this season, beating the likes of Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid.
They will, however, be without Rice for the game tomorrow, with the influential England midfielder suffering from illness and among several players not have made the trip to Belgium.
Despite scoring against Aston Villa at the weekend, Leandro Trossard will also play no part, having experienced a recurrence of the calf problem he picked up two weeks ago against Bayern.
William Saliba, meanwhile, remains sidelined with the knock he picked up in training at the end of November.
“Declan [Rice] was ill. He was quite sick after the game [against Aston Villa] already and he hasn’t travelled with us,” said Arteta on Tuesday.
“He wasn’t feeling good at all. So he will have a couple of days to rest and to get his body right, but today he was already very keen to be able to play – but unfortunately he is not able to do that.
“William [Saliba] is still not available and Leo [Trossard], again, picked up another knock in an area where he had the previous issue.
“I don’t expect that it is going to be long, but unfortunately he cannot be with us.”
The trio join a growing Gunners injury list that includes Cristhian Mosquera, Gabriel, Kai Havertz and also teenager Max Dowman, who sustained an ankle injury last weekend.
Dowman’s absence, however, has enabled Arteta to add Gabriel Jesus to his Champions League squad and the Brazilian could feature for the first time in 11 months after recovering from an ACL injury.
Despite the injuries, the Arsenal boss has dismissed suggestions it is down to players overtraining.
“We don’t train,” Arteta said. “Today we have done 20 minutes, so surely it is not because we overtrain the players?
“We don’t have time to train, but the fact that you are missing players, you are loading other players more.
“That is a consequence to that and it is really a dangerous circle that one. It is a test for the team and, so far, we have reacted very well to that.”