By TAMARA PRENN, SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER
Published: 11:12 EST, 10 December 2025 | Updated: 11:21 EST, 10 December 2025
Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Arsenal has suffered another injury blow with the loss of summer signing Cristhian Mosquera after his substitution in the Gunners' last outing against Brentford.
The Spaniard was withdrawn during the all-London clash last Wednesday, adding to the growing defensive crisis Arteta must grapple with following injuries to William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes.
'Unfortunately he's going to be out for weeks,' Arteta confirmed on Wednesday.
'Unfortunately, it's much more than what we expected, but the player was feeling it, so he's going to be out for weeks.'
Arteta's comments came ahead of the north London side's Champions League meeting with Club Brugge in Belgium on Wednesday evening.
The Premier Leauge title-chasing side will look to get back to winning ways after their last-gasp defeat at the hands of Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon.
Mikel Arteta shared that he will have to go without defender Cristhian Mosquera following his injury against Brentford
Unai Emery's triumph ended an impressive run of 18 games without loss in all competitions since the start of the season.
But combined with this latest absence, the defeat could yet place more scrutiny on the toll injuries are taking on Arteta's finely tuned squad.
Talented teenage star Max Dowman - who has on occasion featured for the senior side and was due to travel to Belgium - had been the latest to suffer an issue, picking up an ankle ligament injury playing against Manchester United's under-21s which will sideline him for two months.
When asked about the roiling injury crisis at the club, Arteta argued that it wasn't due to 'overtraining' his players, but a vicious cycle from missing key players to begin with.
'We don't have time to train. So training is not there but obviously the fact that you are missing players, you are loading other players more (as) a consequence,' he added. 'It's a really dangerous circle that one.
'Some of the players have played over 150 games in two seasons so it starts to get overloaded. You start to ask them again and again and again to do that (and) at some point they will break down.
'It's something that we are constantly looking at. We have played a lot of games with a lot of players missing that puts a lot of stress and then more injuries but we are on it.
'I'm really happy what we're doing in terms of the medical stuff and everything that we are trying to bring together, but sometimes as well we need some things to go on our side.'
Mikel ArtetaArsenal