Mikel Arteta has confirmed Gabriel Magalhaes, Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard are all fully fit and available for Arsenal’s Champions League clash with Sporting.
Gabriel played the full 90 minutes of Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final loss to Manchester City, but was forced off with a knee problem in the side’s FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Southampton at the weekend.
The Brazil centre-back was pictured back in training earlier today, though, and caught the chartered flight to Lisbon with the rest of Arteta’s first-team squad on the eve of the quarter-final first leg.
Rice had also been a slight doubt for the contest having pulled out of England’s friendlies with Uruguay and Japan during the recent international break.
But the midfielder appears to have shaken off any concerns over his fitness, along with winger Trossard, who did not make Saturday’s trip to Southampton due to a groin issue.
‘Yes, yes and yes,’ Arteta told reporters when asked if Gabriel, Rice and Trossard were ready to feature against Sporting upon the squad’s arrival in Portugal.
Tuesday’s match comes to soon for both Jurrien Timber and Bukayo Saka, however, with the duo left out of Arsenal’s travelling party to continue their rehabilitation back home.
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On Timber and Saka, Arteta explained: ‘They haven’t travelled and are not ready yet.
‘Hopefully for the weekend if everything goes well.’
Mikel Merino, the only other absentee for the Gunners, is still some way from his possible comeback after undergoing surgery on a foot injury he suffered in January.
With Arsenal’s squad still hurting after back-to-back defeats in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, Arteta hopes his players are able to use the ‘pain’ they have experienced to drive themselves towards something positive.
‘Have some perspective about how difficult what we have done up until now has been,’ the Spaniard said.
‘Feel the pain, use it to improve.
‘We are very clear what happened, why it happened. This is football.’
Arteta added: ‘I think what you have to be is clear, understand why it happened. And when you understand that, be better, and that is what we have to do.’
The Gunners will be looking to return to the form they showed in their last-16 second leg with Bayer Leverkusen at the Emirates, where goals from Eberechi Eze and Rice either side of half-time proved decisive.
Their quarter-final opponents, Sporting, had looked to be heading out of Europe’s premier competition after suffering a 3-0 defeat to Bodo/Glimt in the first leg of their round-of-16 tie.
But the Portuguese champions completed a stunning fightback in the second leg to win 5-3 on aggregate and advance through.
‘They are in a high moment,’ Arteta said when asked about the threat posed by Sporting.
‘What they did against Paris Saint-Germain [beat PSG 2-1 at home in the group stage in January] and their recent form in the league.’
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