Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori ruled out of Arsenal friendly against Bayer Leverkusen

Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori are not included in Arsenal's squad for the Emirates Cup pre-season friendly against Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday.

The Gunners are desperate to have both defenders up and running for the new Premier League season, which gets started in just over a week.

Arsenal slashed out £38m to sign Timber from Ajax last summer but he’s only played three games after suffering a nasty ACL injury on his top-flight debut.

The north Londoners are keen to avoid a similar situation with new signing Calafiori, who they brought in this summer from Bologna, in a deal worth £42m.

Fans are keen to know exactly why Timber and Calafiori are not featuring against the Bundesliga’s Invincible champions. Read on to find out…

Jurrien Timber has been struggling with a ‘load-bearing injury’, according to fresh reports.

It is thought that the new issue is not related to his previous knee problem – and it is believed he will also miss the friendly clash against Lyon on Sunday.

That is terrible news for Mikel Arteta, with his side facing their first Premier League game of the 2024-25 season in just 10 days, when they take on Wolves at home.

Riccardo Calafiori is not yet ready to make his Arsenal debut with the Italian still working his way up to full fitness.

Calafiori has trained with his new teammates at London Colney but isn’t up to speed to be playing in matches just yet.

The 22-year old is dealing with general tiredness and is taking time to acclimatise to his new surroundings – but there is no suggestion he is struggling with injury.