The Champions League clash between Arsenal and Bayern Munich is set to be impacted by several major injuries and a Luis Diaz suspension
Arsenal and Bayern Munich will both have key players absent for their Champions League match at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday evening. Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli have been the recent returners for Mikel Arteta, but seven stars are still expected to be unavailable across the two sides.
Both teams secured dominant victories this past weekend as the Gunners demolished north London rivals Tottenham 4-1 with Eberechi Eze bagging a hat-trick. 24 hours earlier, Vincent Kompany’s side battered Freiburg 6-2 with Michael Olise, Harry Kane and Nicolas Jackson all on target.
Despite his recent form, Luis Diaz was unable to pick up a direct goal contribution and that will remain the case for Wednesday’s fixture as the Colombia international is suspended. A red card in their last European outing against Paris Saint-Germain means Diaz is serving the first game of a three-match ban.
Martin Zubimendi has already served a suspension in the Champions League, but it is now only Arsenal players with injuries that are set to be absent. Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz did not feature in the squad to face Tottenham and look set to remain out for the visit of Bayern.
Arteta said at a press conference on Tuesday: “Really good both of them, in the next few days they will have scans to see if we can push them for the weekend.”
Madueke and Martinelli were back on the bench last Sunday with the former coming on for the final 12 minutes. Club captain Martin Odegaard just missed out but Arteta has confirmed all three are on track to feature against Bayern.
He said: “Yeah they are and we’re going to have a meeting now to decide on Martin. We are confident he can be in the squad.”
Gabriel Jesus is stepping up his recovery from an ACL rupture with Arteta confirming that a game behind-the-scenes is being scheduled for him. Gabriel Magalhaes meanwhile, is in the early stages of his rehabilitation for a groin issue expected to keep him out until mid-December at the earliest.
As for Bayern, Jamal Musiala is back in team training after suffering a broken leg at the club World Cup, but he is still building fitness. Serge Gnabry has been plagued by issues this season and missed the weekend’s win because of a minor knee injury.
On his condition, Kompany said: “With Serge things are looking good. But whether he can start or play a full game, that’s a question for tomorrow. We were worried a bit, but he gave us good signals.”
Lennart Karl was forced off in that victory with an injury but Kompany did not appear to confirm he would be out of the clash because of that when speaking about him at his press conference.
Alphonso Davies has been absent since mid-March with a serious knee injury and a return to action has not been forecasted until next month.
