Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta regrets taking the “hurtful” decision to leave William Saliba out of his Europa League squad.
The Gunners host Dundalk on Thursday with just two recognized central defenders available to Arteta.
Arsenal has eight on their books but due to a mixture of injury and unavailability, Shkodran Mustafi and Gabriel Magalhaes are the only options.
David Luiz limped out of Sunday’s Premier League defeat to Leicester to join Rob Holding, Calum Chambers, and Pablo Mari in the treatment room.
Mesut Ozil’s axing from Arsenal’s Europa League squad may have made all the headlines but two more defenders, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Saliba, were also excluded.
“I feel really bad for William Saliba,” Arteta said. “Because we had so many central defenders, we decided to leave him out of the squad which was really hurtful for me to do.
“I was hoping that Pablo would be back in two weeks, but he had a setback, and then we don’t have Pablo, and we don’t have William when he’s fit and available to play.
