Mikel Arteta confirms Declan Rice and William Saliba blows in worrying Arsenal injury update

Declan Rice is an injury worry for Arsenal ahead of the Champions League clash vs Club Brugge. (Image: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed a triple blow ahead of the Champions League clash against Club Brugge with Declan Rice, William Saliba and Leandro Trossard all unavailable.

There had been doubts over both Rice and Saliba coming into the game in Belgium, with Saliba missing the last three Premier League games with a knock.

Rice was a doubt for the clash against Aston Villa, he however played the full 90 minutes of the 2-1 loss.

In the build-up to the match against Club Brugge, Rice and Saliba, along with Leandro Trossard were absent from training . Arteta has now confirmed Arsenal's worries over the trio.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference before the game, he said: "No, so Declan was ill so he was quite sick after the game already, and he hasn’t travelled with us, William is still not available and Leo again, he picked another knock in an area where he had the previous issue and I don't expect that it's going to be long but unfortunately, he cannot be with us."

Leandro Trossard has been ruled out of Arsenal's Champions League game vs Club Brugge through injury. (Image: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Arsenal have also been handed a blow with young star Max Dowman suffering an injury while in action for the club's Development side. He has since been replaced by Gabriel Jesus in the Champions League squad , meaning that the teenager can't appear in the competition for 60 days.

"So first of all, with Max, unfortunately, he picked up an injury last weekend, and he had to come off, so we did some scans, and he is going to be out for weeks," Arteta said.

"And then we have the situation of Gabi, which we are expecting to be training with us by the end of December, but Gabi has been pushing every single day, and he kept telling everybody I'm going to be earlier, earlier, earlier and he has done it. So thanks to his work and all the work that the medical staff have done with him throughout these months and we had the possibility to make a swap there.

"We have done it, and on one side, you see Max and his situation, and on the other side, you see the joy and how happy Gabi is to be back in this competition with us."

On the injury situation, Arteta added: "Frustrating losing Max, losing Leo, we lost big Gabi (Gabriel Magalhaes) and we have other players that we have certain minutes.

"We have managed that since the start of the season.

"Training, no, because we don't have time to train. You are missing players you are loading players more."

He added: "I think you have to separate the kind of injuries that they are, long term, acute injuries with key players.

"It is something that we are constantly looking at.

"It's not only one season we are looking at, some players have played 150 games in a few seasons. The moment you have one injury you are more likely to have another injury, so we are on it."

The update means that the trio have been added to the injury list including Kai Havertz, Gabriel, Cristhian Mosquera and Dowman.