Mikel Arteta met with the media ahead of Arsenal’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Sporting on Wednesday and delivered the following updates on his injured players.
Martin Odegaard of Arsenal is challenged by Joao Simoes of Sporting Clube de Portugal during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 Quarter-Final First Leg match between Sporting Clube de Portugal and Arsenal FC at Estadio Jose Alvalade on April 07, 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by Carlos Rodrigues/Getty Images)
Photo by Carlos Rodrigues/Getty Images
Against Bournemouth, Arsenal were missing Mikel Merino, Jurrien Timber, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, and Riccardo Calafiori.
Ahead of their game against Sporting, Declan Rice also sat out the open training session adding to fears that he hasn’t quite recovered from the problem that saw him withdraw from England duty.
Next game: Arsenal vs Sporting, Champions League quarter-final, second leg
Martin Odegaard
Gabriel talks to Martin Odegaard as the Arsenal captain sits on the pitch with an injury during the first leg of Arsenal's 2025/26 quarter final against Sporting
Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Injury: Unknown (suspected to be knee)
Out since: 7 April 2026
Expected return: Unknown
As will be the case with most of the updates here, Arsenal are being very vague with details when it comes to injured players for reasons that are not quite clear. Last week, the Norway manager Stale Solbakken gave the best update we’ve had on Odegaard since he picked up his latest problem that was picked up in the first leg against Sporting. Solbakken said, “Martin ‘got one’ where he shouldn’t have, but I don’t think it’s [a bad one]. I think he’ll be back on the field in the not-too-distant future.
“He has made a comeback and played two 60 minutes. [Now he’s had] a small setback, but it doesn’t have to mean much.”
Ahead of the second leg against Sporting, Arteta was asked about most of his injured players and refused to give updates on any of them.
Asked about team news, he replied, “Yeah we have to wait till tomorrow morning to see how some of the boys are,” and that theme carried on throughout.
Arsenal under Arteta have never been the best at giving injury updates but, to my mind, this is certainly the worst it has been all season.
Jurrien Timber
Jurrien Timber looks in discomfort as he talks to Mikel Arteta after being subbed off with an injury
Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images
Injury: Ankle/or adductor
Out since: 14 March 2026
Expected return: Unknown
Arsenal have still to confirm the nature of the injury that has kept Jurrien Timber out of the squad for the last five games. The information we have, which came from the Dutch media, is that it is either an ankle or adductor issue.
When Arteta was asked about Saka and Timber and if one of them could be available, he said “Maybe one of them, let’s see.”
Bukayo Saka
Bukao Saka, wearing the red and white of Arsenal shrugs after scoring
Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Injury: Achilles
Out since: 28 March 2026
Expected return: Unknown
There has been no information on what Saka’s problem actually is since he withdrew from England duty, but at the pre-Sporting press conference, Arteta actually clued us in.
In addition to what Arteta said above, he was asked again specifically about Saka and said, “It was something he was carrying for a while. It was an Achilles issue.”
Riccardo Calafiori
Riccardo Calafiori wearing his Arsenal kit shrugs
Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images
Injury: Unknown
Out since: 11 April 2026
Expected return: Unknown
Do you know? Because we don’t…
Declan Rice
Declan Rice stands with his arms behind his head as he tries to get his head around how Arsenal have conceded again against Bournemouth
Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
Injury: Unknown
Out since: Missed training 14 April 2026
Expected return: Unknown
Arteta was asked if he’d like to tell reporters what Rice’s problem is that saw him miss training on Tuesday. “I don’t want to do that,” he said. “We will have to wait and see in the morning.”
Later in the press conference he added, “Well he’s played a lot of games and that is part of the issue.”
Mikel Merino
Mikel Merino, wearing a deep red Arsenal training top, smiles as he looks to his right
Photo by Jasper Wax/Getty Images
Injury: Foot, required surgery
Out since: 25 January 2026
Expected return: World Cup
Merino is out of his protective boot but is not expected to return for Arsenal before the end of the season. There is also some concern in Spain that he may miss the World Cup.
Other Arsenal team news ahead of Sporting
Max Dowman stands on the ball during Arsenal training. Marli Salmon stands behind him. They are both wearing Arsenal training kits of a deep red and blue shorts
Photo by Harry Murphy/Getty Images
Six Arsenal academy players trained with the first team before Wednesday’s game against Sporting CP, but only Marli Salmon looks likely to have any real chance of making the senior squad.
Remy Mitchell, Salmon, Patrick Stachow, Joshua Ogunnaike, Teshaun Murisa and Kyran Thompson were all involved in the session after the players mentioned above were missing from the session.
Salmon stands out because he has already made his Champions League debut, was on the bench in Lisbon last week, and was taken off at half-time for the under-21s as they lost 2-0 to Crystal Palace on Monday night, seemingly to keep him available for the first team.
The rest of the group were mostly under-18s or fringe under-21 players, which suggests they were there more to support training than because they are close to playing against Sporting.
The timing of Monday’s under-21 match may also explain why others such as Andre Harriman-Annous and Ife Ibrahim, who have been around the senior squad more often in recent months, were not involved this time.
Harriman-Annous and Ibrahim both played the full 90 against the Eagles in a game that sees the u21s sit 13th in Premier League 2. Had they won, they could have climbed as high as ninth.
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