{"id":579704,"date":"2026-04-03T14:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579704\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:08:10","slug":"mikel-arteta-arsenal-fully-supportive-of-players-representing-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579704\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta: Arsenal ‘fully supportive’ of players representing countries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikel Arteta has insisted Arsenal<\/a> are “fully supportive” of players representing their countries and defended the club’s relations with international managers following a spate of withdrawals.<\/p>\n

Declan Rice<\/a>, Eberechi Eze<\/a> and Bukayo Saka<\/a> were unable to take part in either of England’s friendlies against Uruguay<\/a> and Japan<\/a>, while Noni Madueke<\/a> was sent home with an injury picked up in the first game.<\/p>\n

Defenders Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es<\/a> and William Saliba<\/a> pulled out of the Brazil<\/a> and France<\/a> squads respectively despite initial call-ups. Jurri\u00ebn Timber<\/a> was also left out for the Netherlands<\/a> after missing the Gunners’ Carabao Cup<\/a> Final defeat to Manchester City<\/a> through injury.<\/p>\n

Belgium<\/a> deemed Leandro Trossard<\/a> as unfit to feature despite playing 82 minutes against City while Piero Hincapi\u00e9<\/a> and Mart\u00edn Zubimendi<\/a> took part for Ecuador<\/a> and Spain<\/a> respectively but were subsequently sent back to their clubs due to fitness problems.<\/p>\n

Arsenal are competing on three fronts and seeking their first Premier League<\/a> title in 22 years, leading to speculation in some quarters that there was something sinister behind a total of 10 players being unable to complete international fixtures over the past 10 days.<\/p>\n

But Arteta said on Friday: “We have very good relationship and communication with most of the national teams — certainly with [England<\/a> manager] Thomas [Tuchel] too.<\/p>\n

“We have been extremely supportive all the time. When you have to communicate the state and the moment of every player, we are always honest. At the end there is a medical decision had to be made. That was clear what the conclusion was.<\/p>\n

“When a player is fit and available to play for the national team, you have to play. It makes us so proud that we had that many players in the national team.<\/p>\n

“Players are desperate to play for their national team. We know how important every time they are together is [what] time they spend in preparation means to them. We are fully supportive of that and when we can do it, we do it.”<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta’s side remain in the hunt for three trophies this season.\u00a0Clive Mason\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Asked how many of the players could return for Saturday’s FA Cup quarterfinal against Southampton, Arteta said: “I continue the speculation that you can do it and judge it afterwards. ‘Did what I say was right or do I maybe have to change, delete and write something else?’<\/p>\n

“We are in a position right now where we need to make the strongest line-up we possibly can to win every competition. We are two or three games away from the FA Cup and we know how important that competition is for us.”<\/p>\n

– Premier League without set-piece goals: What would the table look like?<\/a>
– How Arsenal’s men’s and women’s teams can create Champions League history this season<\/a><\/p>\n

Arteta did confirm Madueke’s leg injury is not as bad as first feared — suggesting he may only be out for a few days — while Timber and captain Martin Odegaard may be available this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta has insisted Arsenal are “fully supportive” of players representing their countries and defended the club’s relations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-579704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}