2 doubts, 1 back: Sporting CP team news for Arsenal clash

Sporting CP have a couple of injury doubts ahead of Arsenal’s visit on Tuesday, but Ousmane Diomande is back in contention to feature.

Sporting CP have received a boost in the buildup to their Champions League clash with Arsenal on Tuesday, as Ousmane Diomande is back in full training with the team.

The highly-rated centre-back has been linked with Arsenal in the past, but there seemed a possibility he might miss the game against the Gunners after he picked up an injury on international duty with the Ivory Coast.

The 20-year-old missed the second game of the international break and continued to be absent for Sporting’s cup game against Amarante on Friday. But A Bola report that he’s now back in full training and in contention to feature in the Arsenal match.

There are a couple of Sporting players who might miss the game, with Zeno Debast and Eduardo Quaresma both listed as doubts for the game.

Neither were able to train with the team on Sunday, with Debast suffering a muscle injury on international duty and Quaresma picking up a knock with the u21s as he looked to make a full recovery from last month’s injury. But one or both of them could still make it back in time.

Nuno Santos and Pedro Goncalves are both definitely out of the game, with neither expected to play again in 2024.

Given Friday’s game was a straightforward cup thrashing of lower-league Amarante, a number of Sporting players dropped to the bench.

O Jogo report in their print edition that Franco Israel, Geovany Quenda, Maximiliano Araújo, and star goalscorer Viktor Gyokeres should all be back in the starting lineup having been rotated to the bench for the last game.

Gyokeres came on as a substitute and still managed to score his 24th goal of the season for Sporting. The 26-year-old also has nine goals in his six games for Sweden since September.