A week after their bruising defeat to Manchester City in the EFL Cup final, it seems that Arsenal players are still feeling the aches and pains with yet more of Mikel Arteta’s side withdrawing from their international duties. Sunday morning brought the news that Piero Hincapie and Martin Zubimendi would be withdrawing from their national teams ahead of the second round of friendly games.
In doing so, they brought a list of players who were initially called up for their national sides only to subsequently drop out to a round 10, following on from: Jurrien Timber, Eberechi Eze, William Saliba, Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Magalhaes, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and Noni Madueke. Add that to Mikel Merino and Martin Odegaard, both of whom had been sidelined for an extended period, and you have an injury list long enough to potentially derail Arsenal’s pursuit of silverware on three fronts.
Zubimendi’s absence is, the Spanish federation confirmed, due to “discomfort in his right knee.” Hincapie dropped out after suffering what appeared to be an injury in the 70th minute of Ecuador’s 1-1 draw against Morocco. Arsenal are currently assessing the 10 players who have withdrawn, several of whom are already at London Colney, and club sources acknowledge that there are those whose absences from the international fold are precautionary.
The question supporters will be asking themselves is just how serious some of these issues are. After all, if this were indeed the case, Arteta would not be the first club manager to see a raft of international friendlies on his players’ calendars and suggest that their long term fitness might be best served by a few weeks’ rest.
This is a viewpoint that several international managers have showed sympathy with. Thomas Tuchel decided that both Rice and Saka, likely cornerstones of his England side at the World Cup, should be among those who joined his camp after the friendly against Uruguay. Both subsequently returned to their club for what the English FA termed “medical assessment.” Norway boss Stale Solbaken had also intimated that it was best for Odegaard to stay at London Colney rather than join up with the national team. The Norwegian captain may yet return to the Arsenal side in time for their first game after the international break, an FA Cup quarterfinal at Championship side Southampton.
Potential timescale for Trossard, Saliba and Gabriel are not clear. None betrayed any sign of injury in the EFL Cup final, the latter duo playing the full 90. If those three and several of those in the paragraph above were ultimately held back to err on the side of caution, it would be easy to understand why. Rice, Saka, Odegaard, Trossard, Saliba and Gabriel all figure to be key players who will be involved at the World Cup.
Arsenal cannot unilaterally withdraw a player from international duty, that is a decision for their federation to make. It is certainly plausible that many of those would have considered the volume of games their players may have to play after the international break, up to 15 between April 4 and May 30, and concluded that if they do not rest now, they won’t rest at all.
In that regard, it is notable that those whose countries have World Cup qualification to play for during the international break — Italy’s Riccardo Calafiori, Viktor Gyokeres of Sweden and Denmark’s Christian Norgaard — have not been withdrawn. Of the other three who have not withdrawn, two — Gabriel Martinelli and Cristhian Mosquera — might be playing to win a spot in their country’s World Cup squads.
After an injury-hit start to the season, Kai Havertz, who played just over an hour in Germany’s 4-3 win over Switzerland, is among the few Arsenal players who could do with the game time in late March. The forward has played just 264 minutes this season, a marked contrast with someone such as Zubimendi. The Spaniard, who has been some way off his best in recent weeks, added 13 minutes with the Spain national team to the 3,574 he has logged at club level this season. Only eight outfield players in the Premier League have more.
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Arteta made no secret of his desire to carefully manage the situation, no wonder given that last season he lost both Odegaard and Calafiori to significant injuries suffered while on international duty.
“We have really good communication with most of them and we have a strong decision just to update them on how we’re doing,” he said earlier this month. “They have communication with the players themselves as well and what they expect and we will wait and see how everybody is and have those conversations and make the right decisions.
“It’s a period that I don’t enjoy a lot, especially when we have 18, 19 players playing and especially with what happened in our recent history with very important players, but it’s part of the calendar and we have to accept that.”
Equally, not every withdrawal could be credited to load management. Eze and Timber both missed the EFL Cup final and the former is expected to miss around a month with a calf issue. Madueke suffered what Tuchel termed a “worrying” injury against Uruguay, colliding with Rodrigo Aguirre in the first half and subsequently leaving Wembley with his left knee, crucially not the other one that has given him problems throughout the season, in a brace.
Hincapie would also appear to have suffered an injury in Ecuador’s last match. Having been moving somewhat uncomfortably in the moments before, the left back was then obliged to run back towards his goal when Morocco attacked in the 70th minute. When Abde Ezzalzouli shot wide, Hincapie dropped to the turf and appeared to signal that he needed to be substituted. His place was soon taken by Pervis Estupinan.
Hincapie has now undergone “medical and imaging tests,” the Ecuadorian Football Federation confirmed, and was on Sunday travelling back to London Colney for further assessments. Whether he will be available for the FA Cup quarterfinal is perhaps a matter of greater doubt than those who were withdrawn as a precaution.
Given Arteta approaches injury questions with the exuberance of a man asked to do his tax return during dental surgery, it may be that the wait for supporters to establish just who is available extends right the way to 75 minutes before kickoff at St. Mary’s next Saturday. Even if plenty of these absences look like they are precautions, it promises to be a nail-biting period. After all, if even half of those who have withdrawn can’t return soon enough, that is an almighty injury crisis to be dealing with at a pivotal moment in the season.
