Arsenal star Leandro Trossard has been called up to the Belgium national team for the international break, along with Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne. Belgium had their first training session on Monday, but there were several notable players were missing.
Gunners captain Martin Odegaard has been compared to De Bruyne this season with Jamie Redknapp claiming the Norwegian midfielder has now surpassed the 31-year-old as the Premier League's best midfielder. The north Londoners find themselves eight points clear at the top of the table heading into the international break after beating Crystal Palace at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Trossard has registered seven goal contributions since his arrival at Arsenal with Paul Merson suggesting the Belgian forward would walk straight into Pep Guardiola's side on current form. The north Londoners have been handed a huge boost in their race for the Premier League title after Erling Haaland was withdrawn from Norway's squad to face Spain and Georgia after suffering a groin injury - though it is not yet clear how long he will be absent for.
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De Bruyne and Trossard were both absent from Domenico Tedesco's first session in charge, but the reasoning behind their absence is unlikely to worry City and Arsenal fans. According to RTL Info, the players who played for their clubs on Sunday have been given an extra day of rest ahead of their international fixtures.
However, De Bruyne played on the Saturday evening but it's possible his absence was precautionary since there have been no reports of injury concerns from the Belgium camp. If the City midfielder had suffered an injury, it's likely a statement would have been released - the same as what happened with Haaland's injury earlier on Tuesday morning.
This will come as good news for both Guardiola and Mikel Arteta who are hoping to avoid further injury concerns heading into the final run of fixtures in the season. The latter is already without William Saliba, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Eddie Nketiah and Mohamed Elneny and cannot afford to lose any more key players.
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