Gabriel Jesus has still been called up to the Brazil squad for international duty despite missing Arsenal’s last five games due to injury.
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Jesus suffered an injury late on in Arsenal’s Champions League fixture against Sevilla on October 24 and has been missing for nearly three weeks with the subsequent hamstring injury.
He has not featured for the Gunners since as he continues his rehabilitation and was unavailable for Saturday’s 3-1 win over Burnley despite Mikel Arteta saying he had a chance of featuring in the game.
Despite his absence, the striker was named in the Brazil squad last week and he has now been asked to travel to South America ahead of their crucial World Cup qualifiers against Colombia and Argentina.
Brazil are likely to make their own assessment on the 26-year-old’s fitness ahead of their first game on November 17, but the move is unlikely to please Arteta who suggested Jesus should not be in contention for national team selection.
‘I’m going to talk to the doctors and him [Jesus] because he didn’t do any training with us,’ the Spaniard told ESPN after his side’s win against Burnley.
‘He’s far from working with the team, but it’s an internal communication between the club and the national team. The first intention is always to seek the best for the player.’
When announcing the squad, Brazil head coach Fernando Diniz said he wanted his own medical staff to examine Jesus.
It comes after fellow Arsenal teammate Gabriel Martinelli was ruled unavailable for selection to the national team during the last international break only to then play for Arsenal a few days later.
‘In the last squad, we hadn’t called up Martinelli from Arsenal. He didn’t report to the CBF in a very complete way, so we didn’t imagine that Martinelli would be ready to play against Venezuela and Uruguay, and he was ready to play before our games,’ Diniz said earlier this week.
‘Because of this too, we’re going to bring Gabriel [Jesus] in to find out his real condition, because we still have 15 days to go until the games, so we believe he could be fit enough to play, because I like him a lot.’
One player who will be staying with the Gunners during the international break is club captain Martin Odegaard.
The Norwegian was called up by his country but hasn’t travelled as he continues his recovery from a knock that has seen the 24-year-old play just 11 minutes in the last five games.
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