Arsenal dealt second major injury blow vs Fulham as Gabriel Magalhaes Real Madrid fear emerges

Arsenal were dealt a second injury blow of the night as Gabriel Magalhaes was forced off less than 10 minutes into Tuesday night's Premier League clash with Fulham. The defender felt his hamstring immediately when chasing back to try and stop a counter attack.

Gabriel was left to hobble around his own box as play went on but ended up going to ground, calling for play to stop. The incident causes a major worry for Mikel Arteta with the first leg of Arsenal's Champions League quarter-final first leg against Real Madrid to come next week.

Jakub Kiwior was called from the bench to replace Gabriel at the Emirates Stadium. Ben White had already been ruled out of the game after picking up a knock in training.

”He had a little niggle two days ago," Arteta said of the right-back pre-match. "Yesterday we tried, he wasn’t feeling right, so we decided not to put him in the squad today.”

Arsenal travel to Everton at the weekend before hosting Madrid in north London three days later. They remain without Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus through their own season-ending injuries.

Gabriel has been a key fixture in the team alongside William Saliba and forms part of one of the best defences around. A potential silver lining for Arsenal is the return of Bukayo Saka to the matchday squad.

He started on the bench against Fulham after spending almost four months out. Arteta had suggested there was a chance he could have played from the off.

"We have respected the time frame, we have done everything and we have to hold him back even," the head coach said on Monday. "So he's ready to go."

Riccardo Calafiori will not make the first Madrid match. He has been ruled out for a number of weeks after suffering another issue whilst away with Italy on international duty.

The problems for Arteta leave him with a threadbare backline at a crucial stage of the season. Arsenal's title hopes were already extremely thin but a focus has been on Madrid in Europe. Playing against Kylian Mbappe and Co without two of the first-choice four presents a huge task for Arteta.

Things were almost made worse after half an hour when Jurrien Timber required attention from the medical staff. He went down holding his right knee after blocking a shot from Raul Jimenez. Timber was able to play on.

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