Arsenal target Abrantes after surprise doctor change | OneFootball

Abrantes left Aston Villa at the end of the season and is understood to be in line for a senior role overseeing medicine and performance at Arsenal.

Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images

Former Olympic sprinter Arnaldo Abrantes is the favourite to become Arsenal’s new first-team doctor following the surprise sacking of Dr Zafar Iqbal.

Abrantes, 39, is said to have left his role as head of medical services at Aston Villa at the end of the season, having previously held the same position at Nottingham Forest.

Reporting indicates he is now in line to replace Iqbal as Arsenal’s head of medicine and performance.

Arsenal have not publicly clarified who will lead their medical department after Iqbal’s departure, and declined to comment on the situation. They haven’t even confirmed his departure and are unlikely to.

Iqbal, an experienced Premier League sports medicine practitioner, was abruptly sacked last Monday, only days after the Champions League final defeat.

The decision is said to have surprised staff at London Colney, particularly as Iqbal had been visible throughout the title celebrations and was present on the parade bus.

Abrantes was Portuguese national champion over 100m and 200m, competed in the 200m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and also ran at the 2007 and 2009 World Championships. He combined medical studies in Lisbon with his athletics career in the 2000s before moving into elite football medicine.

He spent the past two seasons as Villa’s head of medical services and the previous three seasons as head of medical and performance at Forest.