Mikel Arteta wants an expanded squad at Arsenal next season

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta hinted he will be forced to heavily expand his squad this summer in order to combat the club’s injury crisis.

Defender Gabriel has been ruled out for the season with a hamstring injury which requires surgery and could prevent him from being fully fit for the start of the next campaign.

There are also doubts over whether Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz will be back for the start of the new season.

Gabriel is the latest key player to be sidelined for a significant period for Arsenal.

Captain Martin Odegaard missed 12 matches with an ankle problem, while Bukayo Saka has only just returned from a near four-month absence with a hamstring tear. Ben White has barely played since December following knee surgery.

The increase of the Champions League group stage from six to eight, and Arsenal’s involvement in the Carabao Cup saw Arteta’s side play 17 matches across January and February – six more than the previous year.

“Logically if we demand the players to play more games in more competitions with more travel and more intensity the only solution to deal with it is more players,” said Arteta.

“I don’t see any other solution. It makes it harder (to plan in the summer) because there are some players who will start the season after surgical intervention and that’s always a big question mark.

“It’s been building up for a while and the fact that during the summer there are always competitions and then you have the African Cup. We’re going to have a new competition coming up now (Club World Cup) this summer as well so this is all adding up.

“Every month the intensity, the quality and the pressure is increasing. We have to be very conscious that there are certain limits that the players can do.”

Arteta, whose side head to Everton on Saturday before the opening leg of their Champions League quarter-final clash against Real Madrid at the Emirates on Tuesday, also highlighted the impossible nature of forecasting an injury.

“We had a situation with Gabriel (Magalhaes) during the West Ham game (on November 30). He felt something in his hamstring. We played three days later, six days later and nine days later.

“Three days later, he said he was ready to play with a grade 1 injury. And there was a massive fight not to play him.

Day six, he said, ‘This one I definitely have to play’, and everybody’s like ‘There is still a chance of a risk to play’. We decided after a big fight don’t play him.

Day nine, another game – ‘This one for sure’. The doc (said) ‘There is a slight risk, he can miss five, six, seven weeks if he has an injury after that’. We decided not to play him.

On day 12, he played. But I was very tempted on day six to play him. If I would’ve played him on day six and he has the injury that he’s sustained now against Fulham and he misses four months, (cut throat gesture) I would be hammered.

“So sometimes you protect the player because this could happen. And then when the player is totally protected, then this happens, too. There is an element that we cannot control.”