'It's a blow': 25-year-old Arsenal player misses today's training session after coming down with illness

By Charles Jones

Speaking in a YouTube video filmed from Arsenal’s training ground, Goal journalist, Charles Watts has been discussing some of the absentees from the Gunners’ training session today.

The likes of Leandro Trossard and Eddie Nketiah, as expected, were not training ahead of the Europa League game against Sporting as they continue to suffer from groin and ankle injuries respectively, but there was another notable absence that was unexpected.

Indeed, according to Watts, Kieran Tierney wasn’t present for the training session, and the journalist initially wasn’t sure why Tierney was missing.

However, after some confirmation, Watts said that Tierney missed the session due to illness.

No Tierney

Watts shared his observations from Colney.

“A few absentees. No Kieran Tierney, I’m not sure why yet. No Trossard and no Nketiah, two players we know are suffering from injuries at the moment, Nketiah with an ankle problem and Trossard with a groin problem he picked up against Bournemouth at the weekend. It doesn’t sound like that’s the worst injury, so hopefully he’ll be back soon, but you’re not going to take any risks ahead of the game on Thursday night,” Watts said.

“A little bit more of an update that we’ve got. Kieran Tierney wasn’t involved in training today and he won’t be flying with the squad. It’s not due to injury, it’s due to illness I’m told. It’s a blow to him because this is a game we expected Tierney would have started.”

Just his luck

It is just Tierney’s luck to pick up an illess right before a game where he was likely to start.

Indeed, Tierney would have been a shoo-in at left-back as the Gunners look to rotate in the Europa League, but now, it appears that he could be out of action for the Sporting game, and it’s unclear when his next start will come.

Fingers crossed his absence is short and he’s back in the squad at the weekend, but it’s a real shame for Tierney to miss out on this opportunity to impress the higher-ups at Arsenal after a spell out of the starting XI.

These opportunities have been few and far between for Tierney this season, but sadly, Lady Luck doesn’t seem to be smiling down upon him at the moment.