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Team news: Arsenal boss offers injury update on Bellerin, Monreal & Lacazette

By on March 7, 2018

alexandre lacazette

Arsene Wenger has confirmed a blow with Hector Bellerin joining Nacho Monreal and Alexandre Lacazette in missing Arsenal’s clash with AC Milan tomorrow night.

Bellerin was left out of the starting eleven for our defeat at Brighton last weekend as he was given a breather ahead of our crucial Europa League last-16 clash.

However, it turns out the Spanish international was also carrying a knee problem and scans on Wednesday showed he had inflammation on his left knee.

Bellerin tried to take part in training today but was unable to complete the session so the right-back has been ruled out of the Milan clash. Thankfully Wenger says the injury isn’t serious but reports suggest he’ll also miss Sunday’s league game with Watford.

Monreal has missed the last two games since injuring his back during the Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City. The left-back returned to light training today but still isn’t considered fit enough to make his return to action.

Lacazette hasn’t featured in almost a month after being forced to undergo knee surgery in February and the French international is also still unavailable for selection.

Wenger told Arsenal.com:

on Bellerin’s absence…
He is injured – he has an inflammation of his left knee, without ligament damage. He had a scan yesterday, which was quite good. It showed inflammation. He tried [to train] today but he needs some further investigation. He was in hospital this afternoon to know why he is in so much pain. But it doesn’t look a long-term problem. He tried, he went out but couldn’t absorb the training session so we had to leave him behind.

on Monreal and Lacazette…
Apart from that, of course Lacazette is not ready and we had to leave Monreal behind because he is not ready. He started a little session today only, but he is not ready.

Bellerin’s absence means Calum Chambers is likely to keep his place at right-back having filled-in at Brighton but Hector will be a huge miss tomorrow night.

Sead Kolasinac is expected to retain his place at left-back while Danny Welbeck will be recalled up front as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is ineligible in the Europa League.

We will see a change in goal as David Ospina is set to come in for Petr Cech as the Colombian has been our regular in the cup competitions this season while Aaron Ramsey should also be recalled after being rested at the weekend.

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