Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus is going to be sidelined for “a few weeks” after having underwent knee surgery, manager Mikel Arteta confirmed. Thus, the 26-year-old will miss out on Sunday’s FA Community Shield, which takes a different shape this season. Every year it pits the previous season’s Premier League champions against the holders of the FA Cup.
But with Manchester City winning both of those trophies, and the Champions League title to boot (for a rarified air that is a treble), the opponent is last year’s league runner-up, Arsenal.
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Jesus, 26 had been struggling with his knee problem dating back to last season, when he missed over three months plus, after undergoing knee surgery. It was a surgical repair of the injury he sustained in December while playing for Brazil at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Unfortunately, he had a little procedure this morning,” said Arteta in midweek.
“He had some discomfort in his knee that has been causing some issues and they had to go in and resolve it. It is not something major but he looks to be out for a few weeks I think.
“It is a big blow because we had him back to his best, especially the way he played against Barcelona (last week in L.A.), and he was in good condition and we lost him. But he has been feeling some discomfort in the last few weeks and we had to look at it, we had to make a decision and the best one is to protect the player and get him back as quick as possible so we decided to do it.
“It is something related to the previous injury that he had and the surgery. He had some irritation in the knee and we had to get it resolved.”
Jesus misses out on the chance to face his former team.
Elsewhere Leandro Trossard is back in contention while Oleksandr Zinchenko remains absent.
So that makes two Gunners who won’t have the opportunity to take on their former side on Sunday.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager 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.”
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