ARSENAL’S injury crisis deepened after teen sensation Max Dowman was ruled out for two months with an ankle injury.
The talented 15-year-old midfielder has made five senior appearances this season and was hoping to feature in tonight’s Champions League clash against Club Brugge.
But Dowman was forced to pull out of Arsenal’s squad after hurting his ankle while playing in a youth friendly against Manchester United at the weekend.
Boss Mikel Arteta was hopeful the prodigy would only miss a few weeks of action.
But the Athletic claims Dowman has suffered ligament damage to his ankle.
And the youngster is now expected to be sidelined for two months despite avoiding surgery on the problem.
TRAGIC CIRCLE
Arteta admits Arsenal in ‘dangerous circle’ with 3 ruled out of Brugge game
ULTRA DARK
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Reflecting on the setback, Arteta said: “It’s part of the journey. At some point when you play at this level, when you play in the position that he plays, when you play the manner that he plays, it was going to happen and it happened.
“Okay, it’s not ideal he picked it up but it could have been worse. He can learn from that and use this time as well to continue to improve in his education, in everything that is related to professional football.
“His habits, the way he needs to develop his physicality and his understanding of the game.
“Sometimes, when you are away from the game you say ‘I can’t really live without it and how important it is’ so you can use those moments as well to get a reflection of where you are as well to give you a better force to go forward.”
However, both Arteta and opponents United came under fire from Arsenal fans, who were left extremely disappointed by the news.
One said: “Max Dowman got his ankle folded in half by a grown man in a friendly and United were meant to be taking it easy. Protect this kid at all costs.”
Another declared: “This brudda always gets fouled like 50 times in one game.”
One noted: “He gets no protection in youth games, this was always going to happen. Joke.”
Another added: “Arteta should do a better job of protecting such a young player.”
Dowman isn’t the only Arsenal star who will miss tonight’s European game in Belgium.
Centre-backs William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Cristhian Mosquera are all out injured.
Meanwhile, Kai Havertz continues to recover from his knee issue, with Leandro Trossard also missing with a knock.
Some have played over 150 games in two seasons. At some point, they will break down
Mikel Arteta
And midfielder Declan Rice is also absent after falling ill at the start of the week.
It’s seen Gabriel Jesus reinstated to Arsenal’s Champions League squad, with the Brazilian hoping for a start this evening.
Despite multiple absences, Arteta hit back at claims that he is overtraining his Arsenal stars.
The gaffer said: “No (they don’t overtrain), because we don’t train. I mean, today we’ve done 20 minutes, so surely it’s not because we overtrained the players.
“But obviously the fact that you are missing players, you are loading other players more, there’s a consequence to that and it’s a really dangerous circle.
“In terms of what happened in the past, we are not having more injuries. The fact is that we had some others that are long term and they haven’t been with us since the beginning of the season.
“I think you have to separate the kind of injuries. Some of the players, they have played over 150 games in two seasons so it starts to get overloaded and you start to ask them again and again and again to do that (play). At some point, they will break down.
“But yeah, it’s something that we are constantly looking at as I said. But we are on it and I’m really happy what we’re doing in terms of the medical stuff and everything that we are trying to bring together. But sometimes as well we need some things to go on our side.”
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