Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has issued the latest on Gabriel Jesus after the forward was missing in the Gunners’ Emirates Cup win on Wednesday night.
In the absence of Jesus, Eddie Nketiah led the line, captained the Arsenal side and was the one who brought the Gunners back on level terms before they went on to win the pre-season trophy via penalties.
Many Arsenal fans had feared the worst after news made the rounds that Jesus missed out the game because of an injury. It now appears that just like last season, the Gunners will have to do without their star forward for a period of time once again.
There is no specific timeline set but Arteta has revealed that the 26-year-old will miss the opening weeks of Arsenal’s campaign, after suffering a reoccurrence of his knee issue from last term.
Arteta reveals Jesus will miss opening weeks of new season
Speaking about Jesus’ injury post-match against Monaco, Arteta said about the players’ absence: “Unfortunately, he has had a little procedure this morning, he had some discomfort in his knee that has been causing some issues and they had to go in and resolve it. It’s not something major, but he’s going to be out for a few weeks I think.”
“Yeah, it’s a big blow because we had him back to his best, especially with the way he played against Barcelona, and he was in good condition, and we’ve lost him. He’s been feeling some discomfort in the last few weeks, we had to look at it and we had to make a decision and the best one is to protect the player and get him back as quickly as possible, so we decided to do it.”
“It’s something related to the previous injury that he had and the surgery. He had some irritation in the knee and we had to get it resolved.”
What Jesus’ injury could mean for Arsenal
In the absence of Jesus, Arteta has options at his disposal to go with. For starters, he could decide to trust Eddie Nketiah upfront like last season or could now choose to deploy the likes of Leandro Trossard or even Kai Havertz upfront.
Elsewhere, Folarin Balogun’s future remains covered in doubt but it appears Jesus’ injury will not affect the likely exit of the forward.
“The plan with Flo doesn’t change at all, but unfortunately, with Gabby, we not going to have him. We have other options to play with different qualities of players, so we will adapt”, Arteta added.
