Arsenal defender Sead Kolasinac faces fitness race for Watford clash with Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal out

1/27
James Benge9 March 2018

Arsenal duo Sead Kolasinac and Calum Chambers could both feature against Watford on Sunday as Arsene Wenger battles a wave of injuries in his defence.

The Gunners travelled to Italy without first-choice full backs Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal and saw their back-ups limp out of the 2-0 victory over AC Milan.

With Monreal and Bellerin already ruled out of the Premier League game Wenger can ill afford to be without more defenders as his side look to arrest a run of three straight defeats in the top flight.

But Kolasinac, who put in a significantly better performance in the San Siro than he has for several weeks, will face a late fitness test before his involvement in the Watford match is confirmed.

“Sead Kolasinac has an ankle problem, but we don't rule him out for Sunday yet,” Wenger said.

“Calum Chambers had cramps, because he played in a position which he is not used to for a centre back. He should be OK though.

“Nacho Monreal is on a good way, he could be available again for next Thursday.

Kolasinac is evaluated in Arsenal's 2-0 win at AC Milan 
Getty Images

“Hector Bellerin we don't know yet, we have to see. He is not available for the weekend though.”

Aside from the shortfall of numbers in defence Wenger had a largely fully fit squad to choose from, with only longer-term absentees Santi Cazorla and Alexandre Lacazette available to him.

The latter has been sidelined for just under a month after undergoing surgery to fix a long-standing knee issue and will not feature again until April.

Wenger confirmed: “Alexandre Lacazette has his first run today, but won't be back until after the international break.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in