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Fresh Arsenal injury blow revealed as 5 players ruled out of Europa League clash

By on September 19, 2018

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Konstantinos Mavropanos is set to miss Arsenal’s Europa League group stage opener against Vorskla after it was revealed he’s recovering from a minor groin injury.

Unai Emery is expected to make wholesale changes to his side for the game at the Emirates on Thursday night and some fans have been calling for Mavropanos to be given a chance in defence.

Sokratis and Shkodran Mustafi are our first choice pairing right now with Laurent Koscielny still out injured so it would have been nice to rest them and give Mavropanos a run out alongside Rob Holding against Vorskla.

However, Goal journalist Chris Wheatley has revealed that the Greek youngster is nursing a groin injury that’s kept him out in recent weeks so the centre-back is set to miss out once again tomorrow night.

Koscielny has been out on the London Colney training pitches this month stepping-up his rehabilitation from an Achilles injury but he’s still not due back until November so it looks like one of Sokratis or Mustafi will partner Holding against Vorskla.

Wheatley tweeted:

Mavropanos suffering from a minor groin injury hence why he hasn’t been included in recent matchday squads.

It means Arsenal will be without five first team squad players for the Europa League group stage game tomorrow. An update on Arsenal.com today also confirmed that Sead Kolasinac is due back in early October after making a swift recovery from a knee injury that he picked up in pre-season.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles is also well ahead of schedule in his recovery from a fractured fibula that he sustained on the opening weekend of the season and he’s expected to resume training next month.

Forgotten full-back Carl Jenkinson is the final absentee as he’s still recovering from a serious ankle injury that’s expected to keep him out for several more weeks.

The update on Arsenal.com read:

Sead Kolasinac
Left knee injury. Progressing well and now expected to return to full training in early October (initially aiming to return during the month of October).

Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Small fracture to left fibula. Progressing well and now expected to return to full training in early October (initially aiming to return to training in November).

Carl Jenkinson
Significant sprain to right ankle. Aiming to return to training in October/November.

Laurent Koscielny
Right Achilles tendon repair. Started working outside. Aiming to return to full training in November.

Emery is set to freshen things up tomorrow with the likes of Bernd Leno, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Lucas Torreira, Mo Elneny, Alex Iwobi and Danny Welbeck all expected to start.