Arsenal injury updates on Gabriel & Rice after Villa win

Gabriel Magalhaes’ injury substitution on Tuesday appears to be nothing serious, but Declan Rice remains a doubt for Arsenal’s next game.

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Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhaes won the Player of the Match award and scored in Tuesday’s 4-1 win over Aston Villa, but there was concern after he left the field in the 77th minute after a medical timeout.

Gabriel was making his first start for Arsenal after injury, so there’s always a risk of reinjury. But Joao Castelo-Branco reports that the substitution was precautionary, and that the player had nothing more than a cramp.

The defender reportedly claimed he’s “fine”, so the expectation is that he’ll be back in action again this weekend.

In other injury news, Declan Rice missed Tuesday’s game after James McNicholas reported for The Athletic that the midfielder had sustained a knee injury.

McNicholas claimed Rice was initially hopeful of facing Villa, but he didn’t quite make it back in time. The expectation ahead of the game was that it would be a short-term absence.

Yet Mikel Arteta said afterwards that the “swelling has to come right down” if Rice is going to be available to face Bournemouth on Saturday, so it’s evidently not a sure thing.

Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images

Riccardo Calafiori also remains a doubt after missing the last couple of games with an “awkward” injury, whilst Cristhian Mosquera and Max Dowman continue to be absent as well.