Arsenal take on Atletico Madrid in the first leg of the Europa League semi-finals on Thursday and it seems that Arsene Wenger has received some good news before the tie.
Atletico Madrid have confirmed that their right-back Juanfran has suffered a hamstring injury and will miss the Europa League clash against Arsenal in midweek.
Juanfran asked to be substituted during the second half of Sunday’s La Liga against Real Betis and now Atleti has released a club statement officially announced that the 33-year-old is suffering from a hamstring injury.
The official statement read: “after a scan, it was found that our full-back suffered a left hamstring problem, with his return date being subject to how the recovery progresses.”
Atletico Madrid has also made it clear that there is no return date fro Jaunfran right now meaning that he can also miss the second leg of the Europa League semi-finals on May 3rd.
On the other hand, Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone said before the goalless draw against Real Betis that former Chelsea striker Diego Costa will also miss Thursday’s tie against Arsenal after he failed to recover from his injury.
The absence of Costa and now Juanfran means that Diego Simeone’s current squad has only 14 available senior players and all of them will travel to England in order to take on Arsenal.
With Simeone taking on Arsenal with a depleted squad, Arsene Wenger now has one more reason why his team should not progress to the finals of the Europa League and win the title.
Juanfran was replaced by Croatia international Sime Vrsaljko, who himself has been troubled by muscle problems in the recent months.
And by the looks of it, it will be Vrsaljko will take the field against the Gunners in midweek.
