Arsenal defender Jurrien Timber missed Wednesday night’s 3-0 UEFA Champions League win at Club Brugge with an unspecified/undisclosed injury. His position group mate, Riccardo Calafiori, who is currently suspended domestically, but eligible for UEFA competition, has also been battling an injury issue of some sort.
“They both had issues from the weekend – two really bad kicks,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said.
Arsenal vs Wolves FYIs
Kickoff: Saturday, Dec 13, 8pm, Emirates Stadium, London, UK
PL Position: Wolves 20th, 2 pts Arsenal 1st, 33 pts
Arsenal Team News: Part 1 Part 2
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Gunners Team News
“For Jurrien, it was too early, and for Ricci, we have to manage and see if he can do some minutes.”
Timber and Calafiori were two of the five changes that Arteta made to his starting lineup that lost to Aston Villa over the weekend.
The former is very likely to make the squad on Saturday versus Wolverhampton Wanderers while the latter is serving a domestic ban for yellow card accumulation.
However, the Wednesday night UCL win in Belgium saw him come on for Piero Hincapie in the 63′.
Elsewhere promising youngster Max Dowman will be out for two months, due to an ankle ligament problem.
“Max picked up an injury last weekend and had to come off,” Arteta said on Wednesday. “So he did some scans, and he is going to be out for weeks.”
That is a disappointing setback for the highly rated teenager. Also, Gabriel Jesus is fully back now, having been registered with UEFA for the Champions League competition, the club announced earlier this week.
With so many injury and fitness issues to cover with Arsenal that we’ll be giving you a double shot of Gunners Team News today.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor ‘of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, RG.org and Ratings.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.