Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus is in London to see a knee specialist after being forced to withdraw from Brazil’s World Cup squad.
Jesus injured his knee during Brazil’s 1-0 defeat to Cameroon last Friday and, after being assessed by national team staff over the weekend, was ruled out for the rest of the tournament.
The full extent of the injury is uncertain and as a result Jesus flew back to London from Qatar yesterday with his wife and child to see a specialist in London.
Jesus being out for an extended period of time would be a hammer blow for Arsenal and could force them to act in the transfer market.
Mikel Arteta is already light on striking options, with Eddie Nketiah the only backup to Jesus, and the Gunners will be tempted to strengthen as they are currently five points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Arsenal are ready to back Arteta in the transfer market in January and before Jesus’ injury their main priority was a wide forward.
Arteta and sporting director Edu have, conveniently, been with Arsenal’s owner Stan Kroenke over the weekend as part of a pre-arranged trip to the USA.
The pair are now flying directly from Los Angeles to Dubai to join the Arsenal squad for their warm-weather training camp.
The length of time Jesus spends on the sideline could impact Arsenal’s transfer plans and his spell out will depend on whether he needs to have surgery or not.
The 25-year-old was in pain before being taken off after an hour against Cameroon, but Brazil boss Tite has hit back at reports Jesus was already nursing the problem before being named in his World Cup squad.
“These are evil lies, from those who want to do bad things to others,” he said. Not at any time here in the national team did we pay the price for victory with the health of an athlete.
“So this liar who is out there…the haters, that’s what they call them, that’s what they call them, right?
“They keep spreading it around, so they give me the opportunity to talk. Stop spreading fake news and do something else.”
