Carlo Ancelotti has apologised to Arsenal supporters after confirming that Gabriel Magalhães suffered an adductor injury while playing for Brazil, raising immediate concerns ahead of the North London derby on 22 November.
The Brazil defender, 27, went down in the first half of the friendly after overstretching inside the Senegal box. But the bigger question for Arsenal is why he started the match at all.
Brazilian journalist Natalie Gedra, reporting for Sky Sports, revealed that Gabriel had trained separately in Friday’s session due to load-management concerns following a heavy run of games. Despite that precaution, he was selected to start the friendly.
Asked about the severity of the injury, Ancelotti said on Saturday:
“Bad? I don’t know. He had a problem with his adductor. The medical staff have to check tomorrow. We are really sorry for this, really disappointed. When players have an injury, I hope they recover well and soon.”
Gabriel had already missed the end of last season with a hamstring issue, keeping him out of Arsenal’s Champions League knockout campaign. Jakub Kiwior had stepped in during that period but is now on loan at Porto, leaving Mikel Arteta with limited cover.
Arteta does still have alternatives. Piero Hincapié has been used at both left-back and left centre-half, while Cristhian Mosquera has partnered William Saliba in a back four this season. Riccardo Calafiori is also an option but is currently sidelined with a hip problem and did not feature for Italy during the international break.
If Gabriel is ruled out, it could open the door for Myles Lewis-Skelly to be involved during a demanding run of fixtures against Tottenham, Bayern Munich and Chelsea once the international break ends.
