Major Calafiori doubt for Arsenal’s North London Derby after Italy withdrawal

Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Italy international Riccardo Calafiori has not trained with the first-team squad since his withdrawal from the Azzurri squad at the beginning of this week, just two days out from the hotly-anticipated North London Derby.  

Calafiori has started in every one of Arsenal’s 11 matches in the Premier League so far this campaign, but is now a major doubt for the North London Derby against Tottenham on Sunday afternoon. 

The former Bologna centre-back was included in Gennaro Gattuso’s 27-man Italy squad for the last two matches of the World Cup qualifying campaign against Moldova and Norway over the last week. 

He had been struggling with fitness issues and had been training individually during the first week of the training camp according to reports in Italy. 

Calafiori was not involved for Italy’s 2-0 win over Moldova, and then withdrew from the squad ahead of the 4-1 loss against Norway in San Siro on Sunday. 

Arteta, speaking at his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, confirmed that Calafiori has not yet trained with Arsenal since returning from international duty. There is one more training session left before the Tottenham game and it remains to be seen whether the Italian will make it in time. 

“He wasn’t available [for the international break], he’s been carrying a few things and we had to bring him back,” Arteta said. 

“He hasn’t trained yet. Tomorrow we have another training session and we’ll see how he is.”