Arsenal are sweating on the fitness of Gabriel after he appeared to pick up a hamstring strain in the 2-1 win over Fulham on Tuesday evening.
The Brazilian international went down in the 14th minute, replaced by Jakub Kiwior, but with Real Madrid on the horizon it would be a big blow if he wasn’t available for next week’s first leg, and/or beyond.
Declan Rice told Sky Sports afterwards, “I don’t know the full extent of it, but he’s arguably been our player of the season. Let’s just pray he’s ok.”
There’s also concern over Jurrien Timber who went off in the second half after requiring treatment in the first half, having been caught on the knee. He is due to be assessed but it could be a case that after illness during the Interlull, he ran out of steam rather than anything more serious – fingers crossed.
On top of that, the Gunners were without Ben White for this evening’s game. Arteta explained, “He had a little niggle two days ago. Yesterday we tried, he wasn’t feeling right, so we decided not to put him in the squad today.”
Riccardo Calafiori is also out for a ‘few weeks’ having picked up a knee injury playing for Italy, while Takehiro Tomiyasu remains sidelined until the end of this year with a very serious knee problem.
Arsenal travel to Merseyside on Saturday for an early kick-off against Everton, before the visit of Real Madrid on Tuesday.