Arteta opens up on triple Arsenal injury scare as Rice misses Barcelona win
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta confirmed Declan Rice missed the Barcelona friendly after receiving a kick in training, while also providing updates on two of the England midfielder's team-mates.
Rice, a club record signing from West Ham, played for his new side in the MLS All-Star Game and the friendly against Manchester United. He wasn't involved against Barca, though, with Mikel Arteta's side winning 5-3 in Los Angeles.
Oleksandr ZInchenko and Folarin Balogun also missed out, with the latter continuing to be linked with a summer exit. The pair were spotted training away from their team-mates in the lead-up to the game, and Arteta has explained the situation around the trio.
"Dec had quite a strong kick in training," Arteta told reporters. "We didn’t want to take the risk. He was not really comfortable to train yesterday or today."
"Alex [Zinchenko] had a little muscular issue unfortunately. I think he will be back soon but it’s a shame he hasn’t been with us the whole tour.
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"[Balogun] wasn’t available – he had a little foot injury, and he hasn’t been training with us, and he wasn’t available to us, that was the reason," the manager added. When asked about the American frontman playing a role for his team this term, Arteta said "Yes but he first needs to be fit and available to play minutes."
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Declan Rice picked up an injury in Arsenal training (Arsenal FC via Getty Images)Leandro Trossard scored twice in Arsenal's 5-3 win, with Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Fabio Vieira also on target. Raphinha was among the goals for the Catalan side, having previously been linked with an Arsenal switch, while Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres also found the net.
"It’s great to see him score – he’s been working so hard," Arteta said of Trossard. "He came in a really good condition for pre-season and he's a player that gives us something very different to the wingers that we have, and he’s got incredible versatility and predictability to play in the positions. It’s great and will be good for his confidence, that’s for sure."
Arsenal will now return to London, for an Emirates Cup game against Monaco on August 2. After that comes the Community Shield against treble winners Manchester City, while Arteta's team kick off their Premier League campaign against Nottingham Forest on August 12.
With Rice, Havertz and Jurrien Timber all joining, Arteta has been able to bolster his squad going into a first Champions League campaign since Arsene Wenger was manager. There have also been departures, with Granit Xhaka and Pablo Mari among those to move on, and there could be further business to come.
"We have 30 players here which is unsustainable, and obviously the market is still open, and things can happen - but we are prepared," Arteta said. "We are really happy with the squad we have at the moment; we obviously have improvements to make in terms of what we want to do in games, and we have to do that."
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