Even though Gabriel Jesus is currently sidelined by Arsenal with a thigh injury, he’s been called up by Brazil for the upcoming international break.
The striker is in Fernando Diniz’s squad which will face Colombia and Argentina, and due to his current fitness status, the manager was questioned about his decision.
Quoted by Globo Esporte, the coach explained that he’s hopeful the Arsenal star will be fit by then.
“In the last squad, we hadn’t called up Martinelli from Arsenal. He didn’t report to the CBF in a very complete way, so we didn’t imagine that Martinelli would be ready to play against Venezuela and Uruguay, and he was ready to play before our games,” said Fernando Diniz.
“Because of this too, we’re going to bring Gabriel in to find out his real condition, because we still have 15 days to go until the games, so we believe he could be fit enough to play, because I like him a lot. We have 24 players on the list, and if anything happens to him we won’t need to change the squad.”
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has been refusing to set a timetable for Jesus’ recover, so it’s unclear how his recovery has been going.
Brazil are playing Colombia on the 16th of November and Argentina on the 21st. Those games are valid for the World Cup qualifiers, which are usually not a big thing for Brazil, but since the team has been struggling lately, Diniz will want to come with full force and stop the criticism about his work at the national team.
The striker has 11 appearances for Arsenal this season, with four goals and one assist, and already missed their last three matches due to this injury.
