Arteta gives injury updates on Rice, Saliba, Trossard & Mosquera | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta admits Arsenal face a late decision on the fitness of Declan Rice and Cristhian Mosquera ahead of Saturday’s early kick off at Aston Villa, with further tests scheduled to determine who will be available.

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Rice was withdrawn with 10 minutes remaining in Wednesday night’s 2 0 win over Brentford, while Mosquera was forced off in the first half and replaced by Jurrien Timber.

Speaking at his pre match press conference, Arteta said: “Well, let’s see. We have another training session in the afternoon. Every hour is going to be very important to see the availability of the players. After that, we’ll decide which ones.”

On William Saliba and Leandro Trossard, he added: “It is a matter of days with those two, for sure. After the training session, we’ll know more.”

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Mosquera’s injury is the most concerning.

The defender suffered an ankle problem against Brentford and is undergoing further assessment. Arteta said: “That’s the more complicated one, but again, we have another test today to see where we are with them. We need to know, because the feeling that we had after the game and yesterday, we need to corroborate with what happens with all the testing that we do today.”

Immediately after Wednesday’s win, Arteta had said, “Yes, obviously it’s never good news, Declan [Rice] had to come off, we don’t know, we’ll have to see tomorrow what he’s got.

“[Cristhian] Mosquera is the other one that is out, obviously we have big Gabi and Willy [Saliba] out as well.”

He added: “[Rice] could not carry on playing, so we have to wait and see tomorrow what happens. [On Mosquera], we have to wait and see. It’s probably the knee or ankle. We don’t know. He could not really tell us exactly how it was, but he wasn’t able to continue.”

Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Rice later offered a more positive assessment, telling Sky Sports that he is “fine” and expects to be available for the trip to Villa Park.

With Arsenal playing at 12.30 on Saturday after a Wednesday night fixture, Arteta again highlighted the strain of the schedule. “The only thing I can say is that whenever it’s possible to help and give the players an extra day or hours to fulfil the maximum potential, let’s do it. That’s it. We are ready for tomorrow’s game, that’s for sure.”

If Mosquera is ruled out and Saliba fails to recover, Timber is likely to feature centrally again, with Ben White continuing at right back.

The final state of Arteta’s defence will depend on the results of the medical assessments over the next 24 hours.