Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is facing a significant challenge this summer as multiple key players battle serious fitness concerns during the World Cup in North America.
Eyebrows were raised when 11 Arsenal stars pulled out of international duty back in March, with some sceptics dismissing it as an elaborate hoax at the time.
Recent comments from William Saliba and Declan Rice have quickly dispelled those doubts, painting a worrying picture of the physical condition of Arsenal’s core players.
Bukayo Saka missed England training on Saturday and is unlikely to start against Boston in Ghana on Tuesday as he continues to manage Achilles tendinopathy.
The painful condition will need to be carefully handled throughout the remainder of the tournament, limiting how freely England can deploy their star winger.
Rice has also revealed he has been juggling neural hamstring pain since Christmas, underlining the severity of the physical toll last season placed on Arsenal’s players.
The £105million midfielder, who has witnessed Saka’s struggles first hand at club level, insists England are right to operate with caution when it comes to the winger.
Captain Martin Odegaard told Norwegian media ahead of the tournament that the pain in his knee had “only just started to ease,” adding further concern to Arsenal’s injury picture.
England, France and Norway have all started well in North America, meaning Rice, Saka, Saliba and Odegaard could all be involved deep into the competition.
The World Cup final is scheduled for July 19 in New Jersey, and just four weeks later Arsenal face Manchester City in the Community Shield in Cardiff.
That extraordinarily tight turnaround leaves very little time for Arsenal’s walking wounded to properly rest, recover and prepare for the new Premier League campaign.
Odegaard, who missed 27 games last season through various injuries, is also approaching the final two years of his contract, raising further uncertainty around his future at the club.
Arteta has a significant decision to make regarding his captain, but what cannot be disputed is that last season has taken a massive collective physical toll on his squad.
Sporting director Andrea Berta’s recruitment work this summer is therefore more critical than ever, following his oversight of a club-record transfer spree just twelve months ago.
Arsenal cannot afford to overhaul the squad too dramatically, mindful of how Liverpool destroyed their own momentum by making too many changes in a single window.
However, it is equally clear the club must sign sufficient cover for Rice and strengthen other key positions, rather than continuing to over-rely on their top performers for 55-plus appearances per season.
With Saliba and Rice both publicly flagging their physical struggles, it is genuinely difficult to expect those players to hit peak performance levels from the opening weeks of August.
Berta’s decisions in the coming weeks could ultimately determine whether Arsenal successfully defend their Premier League title or fall short under the weight of accumulated injuries.
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