Gabriel sustained a knock in Saturday’s loss at Southampton Alex Pantling/Getty Images
Gabriel, Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard will return for Arsenal’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Sporting CP on Tuesday, Mikel Arteta has confirmed.
Gabriel had been forced off with an injury in Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat at Southampton in Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final. The 28-year-old centre-back was treated on the field before being replaced by William Saliba in the 72nd minute, and was later seen on the bench with ice strapped to his knee.
Rice, 27, and 31-year-old Trossard were not in the squad for Saturday’s match after withdrawing from their respective international squads over the March break.
When asked if those three players were fit and available in his pre-match press conference on Monday, Arteta replied: “Yes.”
The trio were three of 11 Arsenal players that withdrew from their respective international squads in March.
The Brazil Football Federation (CBF) announced that Gabriel would miss friendlies against France and Croatia after experiencing pain in his right knee following Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final defeat against Manchester City on March 22.
Rice withdrew from England’s camp to return for “medical assessment” while Trossard came back to the north London side with a “physical issue”.
Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber were among the others to withdraw for the same reasons and Arteta did not rule out the possibility of their availability for Saturday’s league game against Bournemouth.
“They haven’t travelled in yet, let’s see,” Arteta said on the duo. “Hopefully they’re going to be ready for the weekend, if everything goes well.
“That’s a massive boost because in recent days we’ve lost so many important players and that’s something that we need to change immediately.”
Tuesday’s match in Lisbon will be the first leg of Arsenal’s Champions League quarter-final after beating Bayer Leverkusen in the last-16.
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