Arteta confirms Hincapié and Zubimendi injured in post-match training ahead of Lille tie

Piero Hincapié and Martín Zubimendi suffered ankle injuries in a post-match training session at Emirates Stadium on Saturday, Mikel Arteta said, and both will miss Arsenal’s UEFA Champions League home game against LOSC Lille on Tuesday.

Arteta defended the decision to run the session after Arsenal’s 2-1 victory over Leeds United last weekend, saying it had been planned for players who “didn’t have enough minutes” to aid recovery and rhythm. He described two incidents during that session as “very unfortunate” and confirmed the pair would undergo scans on Monday to establish the extent of their injuries.

“We had a training session planned after the game for the players that didn’t have enough minutes, to get everybody [into] the recovery on Sunday and to get everybody in the rhythm and in two very unfortunate actions, we lost two players,” Arteta said when asked about the workouts.

Arteta added that the club needed to assess both players and would use scans to determine how long they would be sidelined. “Not great. We need to assess them today, they will have further scans to see how they are and then we will have the timeframe how long they are going to be out for,” he said.

On their availability for the upcoming match, Arteta said: “They are both going to miss tomorrow’s match, that’s for sure. Today they are going to have a further scan and probably tomorrow we will know more and let’s see how they are going to go. Piero’s one looks a little bit more serious I think but we are going to have to wait and see. [It is] far from ideal.”

William Saliba has returned to light training, Arteta confirmed, but the manager said the centre-back remains “weeks” away from a comeback and did not provide a return date. Arteta also indicated he had spoken with staff to consider whether anything could have been done differently to prevent the injuries.

Arsenal face LOSC Lille on 14th Oct at 12:30 am IST; Hincapié and Zubimendi are confirmed to miss that fixture while scans on Monday will inform their rehabilitation timelines.