{"id":318720,"date":"2026-04-14T23:17:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=318720"},"modified":"2026-04-14T23:17:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:47:35","slug":"declan-rice-and-bukayo-saka-injury-update-ahead-of-arsenal-vs-sporting-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/14\/declan-rice-and-bukayo-saka-injury-update-ahead-of-arsenal-vs-sporting-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka injury update ahead of Arsenal vs Sporting | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><figcaption>Saka and Rice were amongst those that missed training on Tuesday (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mikel Arteta has confirmed Declan Rice has joined Arsenal\u2019s list of injury doubts ahead of their Champions League showdown with Sporting CP.<\/p>\n<p>The England international played the complete 90 minutes away in Lisbon last week and again in Saturday\u2019s 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth within the Premier League.<\/p>\n<p>However the midfielder was among the many clutch of Arsenal stars to Tuesday morning\u2019s training session ahead of the visit of the Portuguese giants.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal lead 1-0 on the halfway point of their quarter-final tie ahead of the return leg in north London on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Arteta confirmed he continues to be waiting to learn if a number of names shall be ready with a season-defining clash with Manchester City also waiting this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Arteta refused disclosed any details over Rice\u2019s absence, suggesting the club will make a late decision on his fitness.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if he could disclose anything specific on Rice\u2019s issue, Arteta said: \u2018I don\u2019t want to try this. We may have to attend and see tomorrow but obviously he was unable to coach.\u2019<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"431\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2270848593.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27936672\" alt=\"Arsenal v Bournemouth - Premier League\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Rice missed training on Tuesday (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Asked if his issue was related to an ungainly landing within the Bournemouth game, the Arsenal boss added: \u2018He has played lots of games which is an element of the problem but he&#8217;ll do all the pieces he can to be with us tomorrow.\u2019<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Arteta gives Saka, Timber and Odegaard update<\/h2>\n<p>Rice was one in all five players not seen in training this morning.<\/p>\n<p>Bukayo Saka has not played in Arsenal\u2019s three games because the end of the international break. While Arteta had hoped to have him back last Saturday against Bournemouth, the winger didn&#8217;t recuperate in time.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It&#8217;s something he has been carrying for some time,\u2019 Arteta said. \u2018It was an Achilles issue. It&#8217;s progression and hopefully it&#8217;s a matter of days and never weeks but he has to see when he&#8217;s loading more, how he responds to that form of progression.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Jurrien Timber meanwhile has missed the last five games, not featuring because the mid-March victory over Everton.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"437\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2265577028.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27602002\" alt=\"Bayer Leverkusen vs FC Arsenal - UEFA Champions League\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Timber has been sidelined with a groin problem (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018We now have to attend till tomorrow morning to see how a number of the boys are.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>When asked if Timber or Saka may very well be back, Arteta added: \u2018Perhaps one in all them, let\u2019s see.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Martin Odegaard has had an injury-hit begin to 2026, missing 12 games through muscle and knee problems. The Norway international was back within the starting XI against Southampton and Sporting but was sidelined again last week.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2263103850.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27469847\" alt=\"Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal - Premier League\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Odegaard missed the sport against Bournemouth (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>His national team manager Stale Solbakken revealed last week the midfielder had suffered a \u2018minor setback\u2019 with Arsenal still to offer a transparent update on his condition.<\/p>\n<p>Riccardo Calafiori played the complete 90 against Sporting last week but was one other who sat out of the Bournemouth game. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Chelsea hero Eidur Gudjohnsen makes daring title prediction after Arsenal defeat<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Jamie Carragher fears Arsenal star is a serious problem for Mikel Arteta \u2013 \u2018he\u2019s really struggling\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Edwin van der Sar warns Michael Carrick made mistake with \u00a374m Man Utd star vs Leeds<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\"><a class=\"metro-button share-bar-comments\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saka and Rice were amongst those that missed training on Tuesday (Picture: Getty Images) Mikel Arteta has confirmed Declan Rice has joined Arsenal\u2019s list of injury doubts ahead of their Champions League showdown with Sporting CP. The England international played the complete 90 minutes away in Lisbon last week and again in Saturday\u2019s 2-1 defeat [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":318721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20686],"tags":[1127,2605,7451,12012,5479,667,12013,7452,839,581],"class_list":["post-318720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-ahead","tag-arsenal","tag-bukayo","tag-declan","tag-football","tag-injury","tag-rice","tag-saka","tag-sporting","tag-update"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318720"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318723,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318720\/revisions\/318723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}