Arsenal stars Bukayo Saka, Riccardo Calafiori and Jurrien Timber were not spotted in training ahead of Sunday’s Premier League showdown against Liverpool.
The Gunners will be looking to bounce back from last weekend’s shock defeat at Bournemouth with a morale-boosting win against the current leaders.
Mikel Arteta may be forced to shuffle his pack again, however, and will have to make at least one change in defence given William Saliba will be serving a one-game suspension.
Riccardo Calafiori could have represented an option to replace the France international in central defence, but the Italy international is nursing a knee injury.
Reports from Italy on Thursday suggested the damage sustained by the summer signing from Bologna wasn’t serious but it looks as though he won’t recover in time to face the in-form Reds.
Mystery, meanwhile, continues to surround the fitness of Saka who has missed the last two games after he sustained a muscle injury playing for England in their defeat against Greece a fortnight ago.
With captain Martin Odegaard still absent, Arteta will be desperate for Saka to be available and Gunners legend David Seaman believes the winger will be back before too long having paid a visit to his old club’s training ground last week.
Speaking about Arsenal’s prospects against Liverpool, Seaman said: ‘I’m a little bit nervy, if I’m honest, because we’re not going to be at our strongest, depending on Saka,’ the former England No.1 told Betway.
‘Although when I was in last Thursday at Arsenal, coaching with the young goalies, I saw Bukayo with his boots on and I was like, ‘ah, good sign’.
‘Not trainers or anything like that. He was going off to do some one-to-one rehab, so that was a good sign. Hopefully it’s not too bad.’
Jurrien Timber also remains a doubt with the versatile defender having been out since the international break.
Jakub Kiwior could play at either centre-half or left-back against Liverpool while Oleksandr Zinchenko is available again.
Teenager Myles Lewis-Skelly was, however, preferred against Shakhtar in midweek when Arteta opted to replace Ben White at the break, mindful that the Arsenal right-back was already on a yellow card.
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