Arsenal will be without Piero Hincapie and Martin Zubimendi for Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League meeting with Lille after both players suffered injuries during a training session following their weekend victory over Leeds United.
Manager Mikel Arteta confirmed the setbacks at the Sobha Realty Training Centre, according to an update on the club’s official website on Monday.
The injuries occurred during a session for players who had limited playing time in Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League win over Leeds, with further medical scans scheduled to establish the extent of the damage.
“In two very unfortunate actions, we lost two players, and yeah, not great. We need to assess them today. They have further scans to see where they are and they will have that time frame, how long they’re going to be out for,” Arteta said.
The Arsenal boss confirmed both players would miss the Lille encounter, adding that Hincapie’s injury appeared more serious.
“They’re both going to miss tomorrow’s match, that’s for sure, and today they’re going to have a further scan and probably tomorrow we’ll know more.
“Then we’ll see how they’re going to go. Piero’s one looks a little bit more serious I think, but we’ll have to wait and see,” he said.
Both players started on the bench against Leeds, with Hincapie introduced in the 80th minute as Arsenal held on for victory.
Arteta defended the decision to hold the additional training session when asked whether the injuries could have been prevented, stressing the importance of maintaining players’ fitness and readiness.
“Very easy; don’t train. Never train, and they don’t get injured. That’s why the consequence to that is when they have to play, they have no rhythm, and when you ask them to play, they’re going to have no impact in the game,” he said.
The Spaniard described the incidents as unfortunate, noting that contact injuries can happen during small-sided training games. He added that Arsenal had conducted similar sessions 37 times last season without encountering the same problem.
Meanwhile, defender William Saliba continues his recovery and has returned to individual on-pitch training.
