Arsenal have received a major boost ahead of their Champions League quarter-final first leg against Sporting, with Gabriel Magalhaes pictured back in first-team training today.
Gabriel played the complete 90 minutes of Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final loss to Manchester City, but was forced off injured within the side’s FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Southampton.
The Brazil defender appeared in some discomfort as he left the sphere with a suspected knee problem, with William Saliba sent on in his place for the ultimate 20 minutes at St Mary’s.
‘I feel he felt something,’ Mikel Arteta told reporters when asked for an update on Gabriel’s condition after the Gunners’ elimination.
‘I don’t know exactly what it’s. We’re going to should assess him.
‘But obviously, when a player is asking to be substituted, it’s never excellent news.’
Just two days on, though, Gabriel was spotted training as usual with the remaining of Arteta’s squad and the 28-year-old seemed in good spirits as he was put through his paces at London Colney.
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Leandro Trossard was also pictured participating in today’s open session having seemingly recovered from a groin problem which saw the Belgian miss Saturday’s trip to Southampton.
One other major boost for Arsenal got here in the form of Declan Rice, who training as normal after withdrawing from England’s recent friendly matches against Uruguay and Japan.
Nonetheless, there remain query marks surrounding the fitness of Bukayo Saka (unspecified), Eberechi Eze (muscle), Jurrien Timber (groin) and Piero Hincapie (unspecified) ahead of Tuesday night’s contest in Lisbon.
Mikel Merino remains to be a way from his possible return after undergoing surgery on a foot injury he suffered in January.
Arteta is hoping to have as a lot of his key men back as possible ahead of a vital period, with the club’s quadruple and treble hopes dead and buried after successive defeats within the Carabao Cup and FA Cup.
The Gunners might be trying to return to the shape they showed of their last-16 second leg with Bayer Leverkusen on the Emirates, where goals from Eze and Rice either side of half-time proved decisive.
Their quarter-final opponents, Sporting, had heading out of Europe’s premier competition after suffering a 3-0 defeat to Bodo/Glimt in the primary leg of their round-of-16 tie.
However the Primeira Liga champions accomplished an incredible fightback within the second leg to win 5-3 on aggregate and advance through.
After a desperately disappointing few days for Arsenal, Arteta refused to make use of injuries as an excuse and called on his players to ‘look themselves within the mirror’.
‘I like my players. I’m not going to criticise them because we lost a game here in the style that they tried,’ he said after their setback at Southampton.
‘And the way in which they’re putting their bodies through every thing. A few of them probably didn’t even should be here today. I’m not going to try this. I’m going to defend them greater than ever.’
The Spaniard added: ‘I don’t need to put any excuses across the players which might be missing or the players which might be here with issues.
‘Let’s have a look at ourselves within the mirror.
‘Accept the situation, reveal against it, and go again to Portugal with, again, freshness, with clarity and searching forward to it.’
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