Jurrien Timber appears to be a doubt for Arsenal’s friendly against Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday, with no sign of the defender in training.

Concern is growing in the Arsenal fanbase about the situation of defender Jurrien Timber, following the Dutch international’s absence for last week’s friendly against Liverpool.

At the time, reports suggested that Timber was fine, only missing out on the game for a rest. Having played the two previous pre-season friendlies, that explanation made sense.

Yet there was no sign of the 23-year-old in training after the game, raising concerns that he may have picked up an injury after all.

Those fears were compounded by rumours that Timber wasn’t on the team bus for Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday afternoon, suggesting he’s set to miss out on this evening’s friendly as well.

Gary Jacob has since confirmed that the defender has been struggling with a load-bearing injury.

With unconfirmed suggestions that Riccardo Calafiori may also be absent for the game, Mikel Arteta looks set to be a little short on defensive options with just over a week remaining until the new season kicks off.

Arsenal have one more friendly against Lyon at the weekend, and that now looks to be the last chance to get Timber and Calafiori back involved against of the opening Premier League fixture against Wolves.

The good news is that William Saliba is back, so if he can get a couple of friendly appearances under his belt, the right-centre-back spot shouldn’t be an issue against Wolves.

Gabriel Magalhaes already made a pre-season appearance against Liverpool, and Ben White has been involved in Arsenal’s entire pre-season preparations so far.

It’s only at left-back where it’s looking increasingly likely Arsenal might have to compromise, with injuries to Takehiro Tomiyasu, Kieran Tierney, and Timber, and Calafiori seemingly not ready yet.

Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jakub Kiwior are both available, so Arteta still has options. Just not as many as he’d like.