{"id":556877,"date":"2026-04-29T12:13:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/556877\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:13:14","slug":"arsenal-get-late-boost-as-atletico-madrid-rocked-by-injury-blow-in-final-training-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/556877\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal get late boost as Atletico Madrid rocked by injury blow in final training session"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal&#8217;s Champions League semi-final opponents Atletico Madrid were dealt a late injury blow during their last preparations for tonight&#8217;s contest at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Mikel Arteta\" loading=\"eager\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_GettyImages-2273109841.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Arsenal face Atletico Madrid tonight and the hosts have been dealt a late injury setback\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Arsenal face Atletico Madrid tonight and the hosts have been dealt a late injury setback<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Atletico Madrid have lost versatile winger Nico Gonzalez to injury in their final training session before tonight&#8217;s Champions League last-four clash with <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.football.london\/arsenal-fc\/\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Arsenal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The Argentina international, who is on loan from Juventus, spoke during a press conference on Monday before picking up the muscular issue yesterday at the club&#8217;s training base.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He is set to miss both semi-final ties and his place in Argentina&#8217;s World Cup squad is also in doubt as he may not return until the end of the campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The initial diagnosis is that Gonzalez, formerly of Fiorentina, will also miss La Liga fixtures against Valencia, Celta Vigo, Osasuna and Girona.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">FOLLOW OUR ARSENAL FB PAGE! <a aria-label=\"Latest Gunners news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook pageLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AFCFootball.London#\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">Latest Gunners news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Even if Atletico eliminate Arsenal and reach the final, he would be touch-and-go to play in Budapest as he&#8217;s facing a number of weeks on the sidelines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Even though Gonzalez may not have started against the Gunners, it&#8217;s a boost for Mikel Arteta and Co because it weakens Atletico&#8217;s ranks and Diego Simeone already has a number of injury problems to contend with.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He lost midfielder Pablo Barrios to injury on Saturday against Athletic Club while defender Jose Maria Gimenez looks set to miss tonight&#8217;s match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Ademola Lookman and defender David Hancko are also back in training following recent fitness problems but Simeone revealed on Tuesday that his star winger was still in discomfort.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Simeone explained: \u201cWe&#8217;ll see if he recovers well tomorrow, because he was still feeling some discomfort today. So we&#8217;ll see if he can help us tomorrow or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Crucially, strikers Julian Alvarez and Alexander Sorloth are both fit while Antoine Griezmann is also pushing to start ahead of his emotional departure this summer when he&#8217;ll join MLS side Orlando City.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Atletico Madrid winger Nicolas Gonzalez\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_GettyImages-2272795756.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Atletico Madrid winger Nicolas Gonzalez has picked up an injury and won't feature against Arsenal\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Atletico Madrid winger Nicolas Gonzalez has picked up an injury and won&#8217;t feature against Arsenal<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">In Spain, there has also been some debate over who will start in goal for the hosts as Juan Musso impressed in the absence of the now-fit Jan Oblak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Musso caught the eye in the quarter-finals against Barcelona and bolstered his reputation amongst Atletico Madrid supporters during Oblak&#8217;s one-month injury lay-off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Arsenal also have a few injury issues of their own. Right-back Jurrien Timber has been unable to recover in time while Kai Havertz has missed out with a muscle issue sustained on Saturday against Newcastle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Mikel Merino has not played since January when he scored against Manchester United. He is continuing to slowly step up his recovery following foot surgery.<\/p>\n<p>Sky Sports, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ with Ultimate TV package<\/p>\n<p>This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football.london\/affiliates\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Learn more<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Content Image\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769839029_462_0_Sky-Factbox.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal&#8217;s Champions League semi-final opponents Atletico Madrid were dealt a late injury blow during their last preparations for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[25919,186639,218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-556877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-arsenal-injury-news","tag-atletico-madrid-vs-arsenal","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}