Gabriel Magalhães ruled out of Brazil friendlies | OneFootball

Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhães will miss Brazil’s upcoming friendlies after picking up a knee injury during Sunday’s Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City.

The centre-back played the full 90 minutes of the 2-0 loss at Wembley but later reported discomfort in his right knee. Following medical tests, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) confirmed that Gabriel would withdraw from the squad ahead of the matches against France on 26 March in Boston and Croatia on 31 March in Orlando.

Gabriel becomes the third Arsenal player to pull out of international duty this period, following William Saliba’s ankle injury that forced him out of France’s squad and Eberechi Eze missing England’s squad with a calf problem.

The CBF has stated that no replacement will be called up for Gabriel. Brazil also confirmed a late change to the squad when Alex Sandro was replaced by Kaiki.

The Selecao now turn their focus to the United States for their final friendlies ahead of the World Cup squad announcement. Both fixtures - against France and Croatia - will be key warm-up games before the squad for the summer tournament is finalised.