Arsenal guaranteed to be without four players for Inter Milan as Martin Odegaard decision made

Arsenal can make a real statement on Wednesday evening if they manage to beat Inter Milan at the San Siro.

Both sides have started the 2024/25 Champions League campaign impressively, winning two and drawing one of their opening league phase matches. If the Gunners are going to come away with something, they must do so without Declan Rice.

The midfielder did not train with his teammates on Tuesday and did not make the trip to Italy with the rest of the squad. Mikel Arteta revealed in his pre-match press conference that the England international has been nursing a foot injury since Saturday's clash at Newcastle.

"Declan unfortunately picked an injury against Newcastle," Arteta said. "He was able to finish and he wasn’t feeling good the last few days. We’ll have to assess him on Thursday and see if he’s ready for Chelsea.

"It was a knock. It’s a problem on his foot. He wasn’t comfortable to put his boots on so at the moment he’s not fit."

There is positive news regarding Martin Odegaard, however. The Gunners captain trained as normal on Tuesday and could feature for the first time since the end of August at the San Siro.

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"The positive news, Martin it’s great to have him back," Arteta said. "He trained with us first time today. He’s a bit earlier than expected. But it’s great to have him here and we will decide if we use him tomorrow."

Riccardo Calafiori, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney remain out injured, however, which means Arteta is guaranteed to be without four senior Arsenal players for the clash against Inter.

So, looking at the official Arsenal website, the Gunners have 18 fit and eligible senior players available for selection for the game vs Inter. As per Champions League rules, a club is allowed to name a squad of 23 players for a Champions League match which means a number of academy stars will need to step up.

Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly are essentially first team players nowadays, despite still being classed as academy stars on the Gunners website, and will be part of the matchday squad once again. Tommy Setford has travelled as the third choice goalkeeper while Nathan Butler-Oyedeji and Josh Robinson are also part of the travelling party.

Possible Arsenal squad for Inter: Raya, Neto, Setford; Timber, White, Zinchenko, Lewis-Skelly, Gabriel, Kiwior, Saliba, Robinson; Partey, Merino, Jorginho, Odegaard, Nwaneri; Trossard, Sterling, Jesus, Havertz, Martinelli, Saka, Butler-Oyedeji.

Senior players unavailable for Inter: Tomiyasu (knee injury), Tierney (hamstring injury), Calafiori (knee injury), Rice (foot injury)

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