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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Marc Mayo

Mikel Arteta confirms double injury blow in Arsenal draw at Nurnberg

Arsenal are sweating over injury concerns for Martin Odegaard and Leandro Trossard, Mikel Arteta has confirmed.

The Gunners drew 1-1 in their opening pre-season friendly away to Nurnberg on Thursday in a somewhat lacklustre display.

Before kick-off, club captain Odegaard was withdrawn having been named in the starting line-up before picking up a knock. Fabio Vieira took his place in the team.

Arteta has also stated that Trossard is “struggling” with an injury following his hour-long outing at Max-Morlock-Stadion.

“[Odegaard] and Leo are struggling,” he confirmed to reporters post -match.

“And we had other players with issues picked up in the week so we have to be cautious.

“It’s pre-season and some of them have only had two or three training sessions so we’ll take it step by step.”

He added that Odegaard’s issue came in the warm-up after a knock to his calf left him “not feeling good enough to play”, while Trossard’s issue was described as “hopefully not” major.

Oleksandr Zinchenko was one of several players to sit out the friendly as he continues on the comeback path from a calf injury suffered late last season. Gabriel Martinelli, Mohamed Elneny and Takehiro Tomiyasu are likewise back in training but didn’t feature.

Rob Holding and Marquinhos were also absent, although the Brazilian winger was named among the substitutes.

Bukayo Saka scored the opening goal early on before suffering a knock to his back late in the first half, yet he played on with no apparent issue before being taken off at the break.

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