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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Matt Verri

Arsenal: Spain reveal Martin Zubimendi injury 'worry' as Luis de la Fuente is forced into substitution

Luis de la Fuente has played down any injury fears after Martin Zubimendi came off in Spain's win over Croatia.

Zubimendi has had limited involvement for Arsenal this season, with his only start coming in the Carabao Cup against Ipswich.

He has fallen behind Myles Lewis-Skelly and Bruno Guimaraes in the pecking order and has played a total of 90 minutes in the Premier League across five substitute appearances.

Having been an unused substitute at Wembley when Spain beat England on Saturday, Zubimendi got his chance to start against Croatia.

The midfielder was replaced with 20 minutes remaining after indicating that he had potentially picked up an injury.

However, De la Fuente confirmed that Zubimendi told him there was no issue and that he was just feeling some tightness as a result of limited minutes this season.

“There was a moment when I got worried because he put his hand on the back of his leg, but he shook his head to say no [injury]," De La Fuente said.

"When he came off, he told me that he has played a lot of matches without getting many minutes and that he was feeling some tightness in his calves.”

That is welcome news for Mikel Arteta in what has been an international break with several injury concerns from an Arsenal perspective.

Kai Havertz returned to the club after suffering a hamstring injury in Germany's first match and no update has been provided by the club on how serious that is.

Martin Odegaard picked up an ankle issue against Portugal after a poor challenge from Bernardo Silva, though that is not believed to be a significant problem.

A minor injury kept Ezri Konsa out of England training earlier this week, but he was fit enough to make the bench against the Czech Republic.

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