Arsenal star ‘out for a few weeks’ and will miss Man City Community Shield clash

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed striker Gabriel Jesus will miss Sunday’s Community Shield against Manchester City and is set to be out ‘for a few weeks’.

The Brazilian, who swapped the Etihad for North London last summer, was not involved in Wednesday’s pre-season friendly against Monaco, with Arsenal confirming ahead of kick-off that Jesus was missing through injury.

Speaking after the match, Arteta revealed the forward underwent surgery on Wednesday morning, with the problem related to the knee injury that ruled Jesus out for three months last season.

“Unfortunately, he has had a little procedure this morning, he had some discomfort in his knee that has been causing some issues and they had to go in and resolve it. It's not something major, but he's going to be out for a few weeks I think,” Arteta said.

“Yeah, it's a big blow because we had him back to his best, especially with the way he played against Barcelona [last week], and he was in good condition, and we've lost him. He's been feeling some discomfort in the last few weeks, we had to look at it and we had to make a decision and the best one is to protect the player and get him back as quickly as possible, so we decided to do it.

“It's something related to the previous injury that he had and the surgery,” the Spaniard added. “He had some irritation in the knee and we had to get it resolved.”

While the news regarding Jesus was a disappointment, Arsenal did welcome Declan Rice back to the team against Monaco after the England international missed last week’s victory over Barcelona with a knock.

Oleksandr Zinchenko did not feature on Wednesday and hasn’t played any part in pre-season due to injury, but Arteta revealed he is nearing a return to the side. “I think he's close. I think he's going to start training with the team and hopefully we'll have him back very soon,” the former Arsenal and Everton midfielder explained.

The Gunners are also set to be without Mohamed Elneny, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Reiss Nelson for Sunday's trip to Wembley, while Cedric Soares, Nuno Tavares and Nicolas Pepe are not n Arteta's plans and didn't travel to the US as part of the club's pre-season tour.