Arsenal loanee Marquinhos missed out on an opportunity to make his debut for Norwich City at the weekend through a minor injury.

LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 17: Marquinhos of Arsenal looks on during the Friendly match between Arsenal and Juventus at Emirates Stadium on December 17, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND: Marquinhos of Arsenal looks on during the Friendly match between Arsenal and Juventus at Emirates Stadium on December 17, 2022. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Speaking ahead of Norwich City’s match against Bristol City on Saturday, manager David Wagner admitted there was a chance Arsenal loan winger Marquinhos could miss the game.

“Marquinhos had some slight muscle problems but I don’t think and hope it isn’t too serious,” Wagner said.

Unfortunately, the problem turned out to be enough to keep Marquinhos out of the matchday squad, with Norwich reporting on their social media pages that he was out with a “minor strain”.

Marquinhos is yet to make his debut for Norwich, having only joined the club on loan last week, and the Championship side have struggled in their couple of fixtures since then.

First, they lost 3-0 to Burnley, then 1-0 to Bristol City, causing them to drop down to 10th in the table – four points off the play-off places.

The upside of that from an Arsenal point of view is that Marquinhos has an opportunity to make an instant impact when he returns.

fbl eur c3 arsenal bodoe glimt 15
Bodo/Glimt’s Norwegian defender Brice Wembangomo (L) fights for the ball with Arsenal’s Brazilian midfielder Marquinhos during the UEFA Europa League Group A football match between Arsenal and Bodoe/Glimt at The Arsenal Stadium in London, on October 6, 2022. (Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images)

As a winger, if you’ve just seen your team fail to score in consecutive fixtures without you, you’ll be well aware of the chance to come into the team, make an impact, and quickly earn a starting spot.

Norwich play again on Tuesday, which will come too soon for Marquinhos.

But if further assessments reveal the problem to be nothing to worry about, Marquinhos will want to get on the pitch as soon as possible.

“We have to make further investigations (on Marquinhos) this week to assess if it’s more than only these two games,” Wagner confirmed after Saturday’s game. Now we wait.