Arsenal dealt fresh injury blow as £50m star ruled out v Newcastle United after ACL concern
Arsenal and Newcastle United have several injury concerns heading into Sunday’s Premier League match at St James’ Park (4:30pm kick-off).
Arsenal have been dealt a fresh injury blow ahead of Sunday’s Premier League trip to Newcastle United.
Newcastle and Arsenal are in Carabao Cup action on Wednesday night, getting a bye to the third round due to their participation in this season’s Champions League.
The Magpies host Bradford City at St James’ Park while Arsenal face a trip to Port Vale. Newcastle beat Arsenal 4-0 on aggregate in the semi-final en route to winning the Carabao Cup last season.
Eddie Howe’s side also beat The Gunners 1-0 in their previous meeting at St James’ Park in the Premier League. Alexander Isak scored the only goal in that game but has since moved on to join Liverpool for an English transfer record fee of £130million.
Newcastle will be boosted by the return of Anthony Gordon on Sunday. The winger has scored or assisted in four of his last six games against Mikel Arteta’s side.
It will be Gordon’s first league game back after he picked up a straight red card in the 3-2 defeat to Liverpool last month, being handed a three-match domestic ban as a result.
Gordon’s consolation goal against Barcelona in the Champions League last week was his first since scoring against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg at St James’ Park back in February.
While Gordon is back for the match, The Magpies will be without at least a few players in their upcoming games.
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Newcastle will be without Fabian Schar, Yoane Wissa and Jacob Ramsey for Sunday’s match against Arsenal.
Schar suffered a concussion against Barcelona and missed the trip to Bournemouth as a result. After the match, Howe confirmed the defender would also miss Bradford and Arsenal.
“I think he's doing okay,” Howe told The Gazette. “We had a 12-day concussion [protocol] for Fabi. All the checks were cleared on the pitch but this was a concussion that was diagnosed after the game.”
Wissa hasn’t featured or trained with Newcastle since his £55million deadline day arrival from Brentford. The 29-year-old suffered a knee injury while on international duty with DR Congo and has been ruled out until late October as a result.
Fellow new signing Ramsey has also been ruled out until after the next international break having picked up an ankle injury on his full debut at Leeds United last month.
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Arsenal fresh injury blow confirmed
Arsenal welcomed back William Saliba and Bukayo Saka from injury in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City.
That game also saw winger Noni Madueke forced off with a knee injury which will rule him out for the trip to St James’ Park this weekend.
Arsenal are also sweating on the fitness of captain Martin Odegaard and defender Piero Hincapie heading into the game while Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz are out with long-term injuries.
Arsenal boss Arteta said: “Odegaard wasn’t fit enough to be [on the bench], Piero as well, he’s out of the squad, but thankfully we have Bukayo back. That’s what we want, we have a strong bench.”
Arteta added after the game: “[Madueke] had an issue very early in the match and he wasn't well enough to continue.”
Madueke joined Arsenal from Chelsea in the summer transfer window for around £50million. He recently scored his first international goal for England in a 5-0 World Cup qualifier win over Serbia earlier this month.
There were fears that the winger had suffered an ACL injury but these have been played down.
Journalist Ben Jacob reported: “Noni Madueke set for a spell on the sidelines due to a knee injury sustained against Manchester City.