Martinelli, Walker and Gabriel – Every Arsenal and Man City player out of international duty

Arsenal and Manchester City will face off against one another at the end of this week in a massive Premier League title clash which will have ramifications for all three sides left in the race. Liverpool take on Brighton at Anfield looking to take advantage of their rivals facing one another.

Both the Gunners and City have seen several players return early despite the international break having a number of games left. The likes of Ben White and Jack Grealish never joined the England squad whilst Thomas Partey and Takehiro Tomiyasu also made the decision to stay in north London to work on fitness and both played in a behind-closed-doors friendly.

With that in mind, football.londonrounds up all the players who pulled out of international duty following their initial call-ups to the squad, the reasons behind it and their potential return chance for the Man City fixture. There does remain however some lack of clarity over key figures and whether they will make the important fixture.

Arsenal

Gabriel Martinelli

Having initially been called up for the Brazil squad, Gabriel Martinelli was ruled out of the friendlies after a cut he suffered against Sheffield United meant he missed the Gunners’ games with Brentford and Porto. There has been little said about the Brazilian although Arteta said the issue was only “little” before the clash with Brentford giving plenty of reason for optimism.

Arsenal managed to win these games whilst Galeno replaced Martinelli in the squad. It is yet not known whether he will have recovered in time for the trip to the Etihad Stadium with Mikel Arteta set to face the media and provide an update later this week.

Gabriel Magalhaes

Also pulling out before the England game was Gabriel Magalhaes. Said to be as a precaution, the centre-half returned to the Sobha Realty Training Centre.

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The exact nature of the issue is not fully known although Gabriel is thought to have been carrying something minor throughout the season. The hope is that with the amount of time that remained before City he would make it.

Bukayo Saka

Bukayo Saka, also like Gabriel, pulled out of his respective nation’s games before any had kicked off. He began his time at St George’s Park training inside before the decision was taken for his to return to the club.

A minor muscle injury is understood by football.london to have been the reason however it was thought to be precautionary that he didn’t take part in the England friendlies. There is strong optimism that he will be involved against City.

Manchester City

Kevin De Bruyne

The Belgian international pulled out of duty to nurse a groin injury which caused him to miss the FA Cup quarter-final win over Newcastle United. Guardiola explained the reason behind him not meeting up with his country although his status ahead of Arsenal remains unclear.

“He already played in Anfield with some problems,” Guardiola said. “But he’s getting better. He’s not ready for tomorrow. We spoke with Belgium manager Domenico Tedesco and he decided.”

Kyle Walker

Kyle Walker came off after 21 minutes against Brazil in England’s first friendly. He took to Instagram to calm fears but didn’t leave much in the way of encouragement for clarity on what he had suffered which Gareth Southgate said the team would know more in the next 36 to 48 hours.

“A truly great honour,” Walker wrote. “Hopefully it’s nothing too serious and I’m back ASAP.”

Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias

After both playing in Portugal’s 5-2 win over Sweden, both Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva returned to Man City. This is not injury-related however with Roberto Martinez keen to try out some younger players in the match with Slovenia.

Both Dias and Silva therefore are expected to be ready for the visit of Arsenal.