Declan Rice was left out of Arsenal’s pre-season win over Barcelona as an injury precaution after suffering a knock in training.
Mikel Arteta has revealed the Gunners did not want to risk Rice in the final game of their summer tour of the United States.
Arteta said the £105million signing “wasn’t comfortable to train” for the last two days and so Arsenal decided to leave him out.
Without Rice, Arsenal beat Barcelona 5-3 in Los Angeles.
Speaking after the game, Arteta said: “Dec had quite a strong kick in training and didn’t want to take the risk, he wasn’t comfortable to train yesterday and today, and we decided not to play him.”
Oleksandr Zinchenko also missed the Barcelona game and Arteta revealed: “With Alex, he had a muscular injury again unfortunately. He’s getting back - I think he’ll be back soon, but it’s a shame that he hasn’t been with us the whole tour.”
Arteta praised Leandro Trossard after his second-half brace against Barcelona capped another impressive display from the January signing.
“It’s great to see him score – he’s been working so hard,” said Arteta. “He came in a really good condition for pre-season and he’s a player that gives us something very different to the wingers that we have, and he’s got incredible versatility and predictability to play in the positions. It’s great and will be good for his confidence, that’s for sure.”
