Arsenal confirm Gabriel out ‘for weeks’
Brazil defender has a thigh injury
Arsenal defender Gabriel will be missing ‘for weeks’ with the injury he picked up on international duty.
The 27-year-old centre-back suffered a thigh injury on international duty with Brazil and will miss this weekend’s north London derby against rivals Tottenham.
“Gabriel, unfortunately, picked up an injury with the Brazilian national team and he’s going to be out for weeks,” said manager Mikel Arteta.
“We need to have another scan – I think it’s next Wednesday – and we’ll have the timeline probably much more clear than we have at the moment.”
Piero Hincapie and Cristhian Mosquera are both in contention to deputise for Gabriel against Spurs.
“It’s clearly a blow because he’s our leader in our backline and to me it’s never a positive thing,” added Arteta.
“The good thing is that we have very good options and people have to stand up now and do the job.”
Viktor Gyokores, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, Noni Madueke and captain Martin Odegaard have all been on the injured list lately, but Arteta hopes to have positive news about at least a couple of them ahead of Sunday.
“We put a lot of energy during the international break with all the medical staff to try to bring them as quickly as possible,” added the Spaniard.
“So tomorrow we have another training session, to see how some of them are feeling, whether it’s a bit too close to bring him in this game or we feel that they can have a contribution in the game. Tomorrow we’ll have more clarity.”