Arsenal lose Hincapie and Zubimendi ahead of CL clash
Arsenal's Piero Hincapie and Martin Zubimendi both suffered injuries in training after Saturday's win over Leeds, ruling them out of Tuesday's UCL tie vs Lille.
· Kickhell
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Piero Hincapie and Martin Zubimendi both picked up injuries in a post-match training session following the club's 2-1 Premier League win over Leeds United on Saturday.
"In two very unfortunate actions, we lost two players, and yeah, not great," Arteta said. "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."
Both players had been on the bench against Leeds. Hincapie entered the pitch in the 80th minute, while Zubimendi did not feature. The injuries occurred during a post-match session at Emirates Stadium designed to maintain fitness levels for those who had not played enough minutes.
Asked how such training-ground injuries can be prevented, Arteta was candid. "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."
Arteta noted the rarity of such incidents, adding: "It never happened in seven years that I've been here." He said the club would have followed the same training plan regardless, given the seven-day schedule and the need to manage player loads.
Both Hincapie and Zubimendi are confirmed absentees for Tuesday's UEFA Champions League fixture against Lille. Arteta indicated that Hincapie's injury may be more serious. "Piero's one looks a little bit more serious I think, but we'll have to wait and see."
On a more positive note, defender William Saliba was seen completing individual training on the pitch. Arteta said Saliba has been working on grass for over a week but stressed that a return to first-team action is still weeks away.
"He's building now his capacity to good standards, and let's see in the next few weeks if we can start to introduce him to the team," Arteta said. "We're still talking about weeks, and when that happens, it's very different whether he would play just before or just after the November international break because it's a very specific injury."
