Emile Smith-Rowe has been marked as a doubt for the England Under 21’s ahead of their must-win clash with Croatia Under-21, and Arsenal will now sweat over both his and Bukayo Saka’s availability.
The Gunners have a huge clash with Liverpool on their return to action come Saturday night, with the chance to move within a point of the Premier League champions.
That job of claiming all three points will become a much stiffer task in the absence of both Smith-Rowe and Saka come Saturday, but neither is ruled out of the fixture as of yet.
Bukayo returned to Arsenal after initially joining up with the England squad for the three World Cup qualifying group games, but wasn’t deemed fit to play as he is nursing a hamstring injury.
The extent of Smith-Rowe’s injury remains a mystery at present, but manager Aidy Boothroyd’s comments will come as a huge warning bell, whilst he also ruled Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-Odoi out of their group game.
“Callum is definitely out and he has gone back to his club, Emile Smith-Rowe is also very doubtful,” Aidy said ahead of tomorrow’s match against the Croats.
The use of the word ‘very’ here doesn’t bode well with just four days until our match against Liverpool, but fingers crossed we will be able to welcome back the pair at the Emirates come Saturday.
Patrick
International break is a joke!