Gabriel Magalhães is a major doubt for next Sunday’s north London derby after scans revealed he suffered a thigh injury on international duty, with Arsenal concerned that their influential defender could be absent for a significant spell.
Brazil confirmed on Sunday that the 27-year-old has withdrawn from their squad 24 hours after he limped off during their 2-0 win against Senegal in a friendly at the Emirates Stadium.
Their manager, Carlo Ancelotti, said that Gabriel “had a problem on his adductor” and would be having more tests to determine the extent of the issue. A statement from the Brazilian federation said they had “revealed a muscle injury in his right thigh” and confirmed that Gabriel will not travel with the team for Tuesday’s friendly against Tunisia in Lille, instead returning to his club for treatment.
Arsenal are expected to take their time to assess the injury but it is understood that there are fears he could be sidelined for a busy period for Mikel Arteta’s side that begins with the showdown with Tottenham.
Losing a player who has played every minute of the Premier League leaders’ campaign so far could be a significant blow to their title ambitions, especially given Gabriel’s importance to a defence that has conceded just five goals in 11 games and had kept eight consecutive clean sheets in all competitions before the 2-2 draw at Sunderland.
Arteta has options with Cristhian Mosquera having filled in when William Saliba has been absent this season and fellow new signing Piero Hincapié also capable of playing centre-back. Riccardo Calafiori also had to withdraw from Italy’s squad after the manager Gennaro Gattuso revealed “he had a few issues” although his injury is not thought to be serious.
But there still are major doubts about when Martin Ødegaard will return despite Arteta hinting before the international break that his captain could be fit to face Tottenham. Ødegaard travelled with the Norway squad to Estonia as they virtually assured World Cup qualification last week but the manager Stale Solbakken admitted “he is some distance away” from playing again.
Arteta will hope that Gabriel Martinelli and Viktor Gyökeres can return against Tottenham to boost his attacking options while Kai Havertz and Noni Madueke are also closing in on their returns from long-term knee injuries.
“[It will be] a huge boost for the squad to have those players available again after such a long, long time,” Arteta said last week. “Really happy that I think it is going to be very soon. We need to get players back because we are missing seven players in the front line for the last two months.”
