Mikel Arteta has provided injury updates on Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka after Tuesday’s 3-0 win over Real Madrid, with the two players having key roles in the victory.
Arsenal put in a fantastic team performance on Tuesday to dismantle Real Madrid in emphatic fashion and take a 3-0 lead into their Champions League quarter-final second leg, but Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka were particularly important in the win.
Rice scored two world-class free-kicks for Arsenal’s first two goals of the night, and Saka won both free-kicks with some impressive dribbling in from the right.
So it was a concern that the two players each went down in the final 20 minutes of the game, before limping from the pitch to be substituted.
The good news is that Saka doesn’t seem to have a serious injury, with Mikel Arteta telling reporters (via Metro): “He’s fine. I think it was a kick…It doesn’t look serious.”
Arteta added in his post-match press conference: “(The injury to) Bukayo was after he got tackled on the foul, I think he had a knock and he had to go.”
As for Rice, it’s a little less clear what his situation is, but the Arsenal manager did clarify that it was a foot problem.
“I think Dec had an issue with his foot, I don’t know if it was a tackle or what it was,” Arteta said.
Given how well the two players performed in the first leg, Arteta will certainly hope to have them available for the second. That might mean taking it easy in Saturday’s match against Brentford, but that’s up to the manager and his medical staff to decide.