Reece James, Nicolas Jackson, Axel Disasi questionable; Armando Broja to miss out against Arsenal

Armando Broja has picked up a new knee injury — whatever a “rotation problem” is — and is thus set to miss out against Arsenal tomorrow, after starting our previous two matches, prior to the international break but being sent home from the Albania national team after just two training sessions.

Mauricio Pochettino confirmed the unfortunate news in today’s press conference, and I guess we’ll have to wait and see if this is just something minor or if it’s something that will cause the 22-year-old to miss more time this year. Broja had just returned from his ACL rehab! (Sadly, it’s not uncommon to see problems develop on the previously non-injured side after such major injuries and lengthy rehabs, with the human body naturally overloading that side to compensate for the weakness on the injured side.)

Thankfully, there is better news on Nicolas Jackson, Axel Disasi, and Reece James, though Pochettino stopped short of declaring them fully fit.

“I think we need to assess now because we finished the training session late. We need to assess Axel Disasi, assess Nico Jackson, we need to assess also Reece. [James] was training well the last few days. I think it’s now to talk with the medical staff and to decide if he can be part of the squad tomorrow.”

“Broja is out because rotation problem in his knee but it is another knee, not the one that was the problem from the past. We have a few players that we need to assess to see if they’re available, if they can play, if they’re on the bench or if they’re off the list completely. Benoît [Badiashile] can maybe be available also.”

Pochettino did confirm that Enzo Fernández and Moisés Caicedo are ready to play as well, despite their customarily late return from international duty in South America. So that’s good — and important! — news.

We had good momentum going into the break; continuing that will be tough against a high-flying Arsenal side. It will be a massive test, to be sure.

“[We need] to build another momentum. I think we are confident, the team is confident, the players have different mood than one month ago. [We’re] still fighting, still struggling with some injuries of players we cannot recover 100% but working really hard to find solutions and of course in a very positive [way].”

“I think we are thinking we need to win tomorrow.”

-Mauricio Pochettino; source: Football.London

I think we are thinking the same. Or at least hoping.