Gabriel Jesus is a doubt to face Liverpool with Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, as he continues to deal with a minor knee injury.
Arsenal insider Mo (@MoArsenal86) reports on Twitter that whilst Gabriel Jesus hasn’t been completely ruled out of the Gunners’ game against Liverpool, he’s a doubt for the match.
Though the mainstream media outlets are yet to confirm the potential absence, there are suggestions that it might not be completely surprising.
Dr. Rajpal Brar points out that Jesus has been dealing with swelling in the knee, so there was always likely to be a decision to be made based on how he responds to training throughout the week.
Particularly with Jesus’ recent history of knee issues, you don’t want to exacerbate the problem by overplaying him.
Jesus played against Nottingham Forest earlier in the week, to good effect, scoring one and assisting one in Arsenal’s 2-1 victory.
The striker came off early, in the 78th minute, but there was no suggestion on the night that the substitution was related to injury.
After the game, Jesus spoke about his injury problems at Arsenal, but he seemed to be speaking in the past tense.
“Unfortunately, I have been sometimes injured,” Jesus said. “That’s [something] I don’t want.
“And then my knee again, I got kicked in training (in July) and then some problems again.
“I’m working hard, you know, I’m doing everything to be on the pitch, because I think I can help more on the pitch than outside [of it].”
Mikel Arteta then said in his pre-Liverpool press conference that Jesus had “trained with us the whole week”, which sounds like a positive update.
All the same, it seems there’s still some doubt over the player’s participation in Saturday’s match.