Mikel Arteta has revealed that Emile Smith Rowe has not flown out with the squad to Switzerland for tomorrow's Europa League game with FC Zurich.
The boss revealed the midfielder has been struggling with injury for a while, and after continuing to feel discomfort following the game against Manchester United on Sunday, he has been left at home to recuperate.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Arteta said: "He felt discomfort in an area that [he’s been dealing with] now for a few weeks. He wasn’t comfortable after the game and he hasn’t trained in the last few days, so he’s out of the squad."
We have headed to St Gallen with a strong-looking travelling party as we aim to get the tournament off to a winning start, and despite also missing Thomas Partey, Mohamed Elneny and Reiss Nelson, Arteta hopes the talent still available to him should give us a good chance of picking up three points.
"We don’t have that many players available, unfortunately, with injuries we’ve picked up in the last two weeks," he added. "This is a competition that we want to take very seriously, against an opponent that is going to make life difficult for us. We want to start the competition the right way and maintain our momentum."
On the subject of fitness, the Spaniard was also asked how he was going to juggle Bukayo Saka's playing time with the World Cup just a couple of months away where he is expected to play a key role for England.
"We will try - if the squad and performances allow us, we’ll try our best to manage his load and get him on the field in the best possible condition. After November we have something that we have never experienced before."
Read everything else the boss had to say in the press conference
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