When the Arsenal team was announced for their game against Tottenham, everyone was looking to see if, as expected, Martin Odegaard would miss out, but his wasn’t the only name missing.
As Arsenal confirmed their squad for the North London derby, Odegaard’s name was absent, the ankle problem he picked up on international duty set to rule him out for around a month.
Riccardo Calafiori was also missing with the same problem, picked up in the same way – on international duty.
With both players on crutches after their respective games, there was little hope they would return in time for the game against Spurs.
Oleksandr Zinchenko was also missing from the squad, the defender picking up yet another calf injury.
At the time of writing, little is known about how that happened or how long he is expected to be sidelined.
Since joining Arsenal, Zinchenko has dealt with numerous injury setbacks, primarily involving calf issues. Here’s a summary of his injuries:
- 2023/24 season:
- Calf problems (Feb 4 – Mar 8, 2024): Out for 33 days, missed six matches.
- Calf problems (Dec 30, 2023 – Jan 18, 2024): Out for 19 days, missed two matches.
- 2022/23 season:
- Calf muscle tear (May 7 – Aug 18, 2023): Out for 103 days, missed six matches.
- Unknown injury (Apr 14 – Apr 17, 2023): Out for three days, missed one match.
- Calf injury (Sep 16 – Nov 1, 2022): Out for 46 days, missed 11 matches for Arsenal and Ukraine.
- Knee problems (Aug 26 – Sep 3, 2022): Out for eight days, missed two matches.
That’s a total of 25 matches (not including the Tottenham game) that he has missed with calf problems alone.
There was, however, some good news for a squad that is also missing Mikel Merino, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney through injury and Declan Rice through a ridiculous red card – Gabriel Jesus has returned from his groin injury and made the bench.
Arsenal team to face Spurs:
Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber; Jorginho, Partey; Saka, Havertz, Trossard, Martinelli
Arsenal bench:
Neto, Kiwior, Kacurri, Heaven, Lewis-Kelly, Sterling, Nwaneri, Jesus, Kabia.
For those wondering, Ismael Kabia (18) is a winger and boyhood Arsenal fans who struggled with injuries during 23/24 yet still managed to impress.
Maldini Kacurri (19) is a defender who also struggled last season with injuries after catching the eye of more senior coaches.