Mikel Arteta denies overtraining Arsenal players after latest injury setback

Mikel Arteta admitted Arsenal are in a “really dangerous circle” but has denied overtraining his players as the club’s injury crisis heightened with teenager Max Dowman ruled out “for weeks”.

Arteta said 15-year-old Dowman suffered an ankle injury during a behind-closed-doors friendly on Saturday.

The teenager has been withdrawn from Arsenal’s Champions League squad, meaning he cannot play in the competition again until the knockout stages.

Leandro Trossard has not travelled to Belgium for Arsenal’s league phase match against Club Brugge after he sustained an injury in Arsenal’s Premier League defeat at Aston Villa last weekend.

Declan Rice is also out through illness. Defensive trio William Saliba, Gabriel and Cristhian Mosquera and forward Kai Havertz remain sidelined.

Arsenal have suffered an extraordinary 95 injuries since the start of the last Premier League season – second only to Brighton – and 28 already so far this term, which is among the highest in the league.

But when asked if he is overtraining his players, Arteta said: “No, because we don’t have time to train.

“Today we’ve done 20 minutes, so surely it’s not because we overtrained the players.

“But obviously when you are missing players, you are loading other players and there is a consequence to that, and it’s a really dangerous circle.

“You have to separate the kind of injuries. Some of them have been long term, and some have been acute injuries.

“It’s something that we are constantly looking at. We have played a lot of games with a lot of players missing and that puts a lot of stress, and then you get more injuries.”

Bound for Belgium