Martin Zubimendi is wearing a protective face mask for Arsenal in their Carabao Cup fourth round tie against Fleetwood Town, after suffering a broken nose in the win over Everton.
The Spanish midfielder is back in the Arsenal starting lineup for the first time since the victory over Ipswich last month, with Mikel Arteta making nine changes from the 2-0 win over Everton at the weekend.
Injury during Everton win
Zubimendi, who will partner Myles Lewis-Skelly at Highbury Stadium, featured against the Toffees as a late second half substitute, for his first minutes for the Gunners since the loss to Brighton before the autumn international break.
Despite only being on the pitch for 10 minutes - plus the eight minutes of stoppage time - Zubimendi had an eventful and painful runout at the Emirates Stadium.
Within minutes of coming on, the Spain international was caught in the face by Everton striker Thierno Barry when challenging for the ball and was then forced to come off for treatment as blood was pouring from his nose.
Return to action
While Zubimendi was able to finish the game, it has since been revealed that he suffered a broken nose. However, the injury blow is not significant enough to keep the 27-year-old out of action as he is wearing a protective face mask against Fleetwood.
“It’s always very special. This competition, coming to this kind of ground, it’s proper English football,” Arteta said of the challenge that faces his heavily rotated team.
“We should be very excited about it, we have a tough challenge ahead and we know that. We’re going to take the game very seriously.
“It’s great to have Marli, Max and Ceadach with us. We’ve always said everybody is going to be important, they need to feel like that and the only way to do that is to play minutes.
“Give me a headache, give me a problem and so far, the boys have done really well.”
