Nine Players Could Miss Bayer Leverkusen vs Arsenal as Mikel Arteta has Champions League Issue

Arsenal face Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League round of 16 on Wednesday, but they may be without several players for the first leg of that tie in Germany

Arsenal could be missing as many as nine players for their Champions League round of 16 first-leg tie against Bayer Leverkusen in Germany.

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Several squad members are injured, and manager Mikel Arteta made nine changes for the FA Cup fourth-round tie against Mansfield Town. Leandro Trossard and Riccardo Calafiori also came off during the match because they were not comfortable continuing with the little niggles they both currently have.

Declan Rice, Gabriel Magalhaes and Martin Zubimendi did not even travel to Field Mill because they are carrying issues. Ben White, Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino and William Saliba were also unavailable.

Mikel Arteta spoke about injuries in his post-match press conference. The manager said of Calafiori and Trossard: “Both of them, they had little niggles, they were not comfortable to continue. I knew that this could be a possibility, especially in the conditions that we’re playing today, so we had to take them off.

Asked about Gabriel, Rice and Zubimendi, Arteta said: “Well, they had issues, and they’ve been carrying issues, and the amount of games that we are playing, it’s obviously super demanding.

“It was the only time to try to make sure that we can clean those issues that they’re having to start the next sequence of two weeks before the break in the best possible way, and we had to make those decisions.”

The Gunners manager refers to the four matches ahead of this month’s international break. After the trip to Leverkusen on Wednesday, they host Everton before welcoming the German club to north London next Tuesday.

March’s last match is the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium. It remains unclear whether any of Odegaard, Saliba and White will be fit for any of those forthcoming fixtures.

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Arteta said in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday before the Brighton & Hove Albion match that “Ben is not available.” Asked about Odegaard, he added: “We have to wait and see how comfortable he is to do certain actions.”

Arsenal have reached the UEFA Champions League round of 16 where they face Bayer Leverkusen on March 11. Fans can watch the game on Prime Video’s TNT Sports channel.

Afterwards, the assessment on Saliba was that “he turned his ankle against Chelsea. He managed to finish the game somehow, but he was too sore to play.”

Merino remains out, with Arteta’s last update being that “the doctors were really happy the way it went.” The manager explained: “It’s a long process, you’re talking about bone healing.

“You need to be patient, you respect the timings, and I’m sure Mikel is going to do everything that he possibly can to speed up the process. We’re talking about months, whether it’s three, four or five, we don’t know.”

Source: www.football.london

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