Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is hopeful that Martin Odegaard and Leandro Trossard have both avoided serious injuries following Thursday's 1-1 friendly draw with Nuremberg.
Having already played out a low-scoring stalemate with Watford last weekend, Arsenal were once again denied victory in their second pre-season outing at the Max-Morlock Stadion.
A sweetly-struck Bukayo Saka opener broke the deadlock with just eight minutes gone, before a freak own goal by Jorginho rescued a draw for their German second-tier hosts.
Odegaard and Trossard were both named in the starting lineup for Thursday's match, but the former had to be withdrawn at the last minute due to a knock, as Fabio Vieira started in his place.
Meanwhile, Trossard was a second-half casualty - being replaced by Folarin Balogun - and Arteta was quizzed on the pair's condition during his post-match press conference.
"He [Odegaard] felt something in the warm-up. I think it was his calf. He got a knock there and he wasn't feeling good enough to play. And Leo as well had an issue," football.london quotes Arteta as saying.
When pressed on whether either Odegaard or Trossard had picked up anything severe, the Spaniard responded: "Hopefully not."
Arsenal were already without Mohamed Elneny, Gabriel Martinelli, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Takehiro Tomiyasu for the clash with Nuremberg, although William Saliba was passed fit to start after recovering from his troublesome back injury.
Arteta unsurprisingly made numerous alterations for the second half, including a debut for new signing Kai Havertz following his £65m arrival from Chelsea.
The 24-year-old endured a relatively quiet afternoon on his maiden appearance in red and white, but Arteta nevertheless talked up his "really humble" character.
"The talent, the quality, the physicality and the goal threat that he has shown over the past few years. I think it's true that we have to see how we adapt him the best," Arteta added.
"He needs to build some relationships on that pitch, but so far he's adapting really well and we're really happy to have him. Every player is keen to help him and he's settled well. He's a really good character. Really humble. He wants to play for us and win with us and we are delighted to have him."
There have been suggestions that Havertz could slot straight into Granit Xhaka's role on the left-hand side of Arsenal's midfield following the Switzerland captain's move to Bayer Leverkusen, but Arteta has insisted that the German is not a direct replacement for the 30-year-old.
"He's not a replacement. He's not going be a like-for-like because everybody's going to be very different to what Granit gave us. It will be very different but Kai has tremendous qualities for our way of playing," Arteta added.
Arsenal now prepare to travel to the United States for a triple-header with the MLS All-Stars, Manchester United and Barcelona before Monaco visit North London for the Emirates Cup on August 2. body check tags ::
