Mikel Arteta says Arsenal are trapped in a worrying cycle where one injury leads to another, but he insists it’s not because the team is training too hard.
Arsenal have lost several key players this season, and for Wednesday’s Champions League game against Club Brugge they’ll be missing Declan Rice, William Saliba and Leandro Trossard. Trossard had only just come back from injury but had to be taken off again after coming on as a substitute against Aston Villa.
They’re also still without Kai Havertz, Gabriel Magalhaes and Cristhian Mosquera, while Viktor Gyokeres is only just returning. Because of injuries, Arsenal even had to change their Champions League squad, adding Gabriel Jesus—who is recovering from knee surgery—to replace 15-year-old Max Dowman, who got injured in an Under-21 match.
When asked if the injuries were caused by overtraining, Arteta disagreed. He explained that the team barely trains at this point in the season because of the packed schedule—saying they only trained for about 20 minutes on Tuesday. But he added that when some players are out, other players end up playing more minutes, and that creates a “dangerous cycle” of more injuries.
