Arsenal could be without SIX players for Shakhtar Donetsk clash

Jacque Talbot

• Updated: 22 Oct 2024 10:16 BST
• 3 min read

Arsenal face Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League tonight but there are several major injury concerns, according to reports.

The Gunners will certainly be without four first-team players but there are also two doubts for the European encounter.

The Premier League outfit will host Shakhtar Donetsk at the Emirates Stadium. They had started their Champions League campaign with a 0-0 draw at Atalanta.

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Arsenal then beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 in North London. But against the Ukraine club, Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber are doubts. Both players missed training on Monday. Mikel Arteta said: “I think it’s gonna be close.

"We’ll have to see how he [Timber] deals with training with the whole group because he hasn’t done it yet. With Bukayo let’s see how he is with the training session later on.”

Meanwhile, club captain Martin Odegaard is still out injured, in what is a huge miss. The former Real Madrid attacker sustained a knock while on international duty with Norway in September.

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Arsenal injury woes

Left-back Kieran Tierney remains out with a hamstring issue. Takehiro Tomiyasu is another absentee.

“We don’t know that (how long he will be out for). It doesn’t look like, hopefully, a long period but we have to see when he comes back how he reacts to the load and to the impact on the pitch as well," Arteta said.

"But we really need him, he has been incredible, his work rate, the amount of hours he has put in to get back. He did it and he was in great shape – and now he has got something else again. But, we are all behind him. He needs our support and hopefully, he will be fine.”

However, Ben White is back after he faced a spell out. The defender has not featured since the 2-2 draw at Manchester City with a groin issue plaguing him for the last few weeks.