Martin Zubimendi’s absence from training ahead of Sunday’s Premier League game against Manchester United was due to illness, according to a report.
Arsenal summer signing Martin Zubimendi was a concern ahead of last Sunday’s match against Manchester United, after fans spotted he wasn’t involved in pictures of one training session and the club’s media day.
Mikel Arteta allayed concerns by telling a press conference that the player would be fit for the United match, and he was. The midfielder played the full 90 minutes of Arsenal’s 1-0 win.
Yet the training absence has remained unexplained until now, with Sami Mokbel reporting for the BBC that it was due to illness.
Mokbel writes that Zubimendi was struck by a severe sickness bug ahead of the United game, and he ended up missing two full training sessions as a result.
The player was determined to be involved in the match anyway, and he was ultimately ruled fit to play.
That was very important for Arsenal, as Christian Norgaard had been ruled out of the match. Without Zubimendi, Arteta would have been scrambling to fill the team’s deep midfield role.
After a very strong pre-season, perhaps the impact of the illness explains why the midfielder wasn’t quite as eye-catching in Manchester. Though the player still made intelligent decisions, he didn’t quite seem up to the pace of the game at times.
With another week to recover and get back to full match sharpness, Zubimendi will hopefully be ready to make a bigger impact against Leeds United this weekend.