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Rob Holding’s proposed season-long loan move to Newcastle United is off.
That is because David Luiz has picked-up a neck injury, and may miss the first six weeks of the new season.
The Brazilian was in line to start for the Gunners in their opening day fixture at Craven Cottage, but his lack of fitness means that the rest of Arsenal’s transfer business is likely to be affected.
New signings William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães are available, but it is viewed as too risky to put them both into the starting line-up so soon. Other centre-back options like Shkodran Mustafi, Pablo Mari and Callum Chambers are all injured.
24-year old Holding was lined-up for the move north in order for him to get regular game time this season, but now he looks like he will be starting the season in an Arsenal shirt against the side that came up from the Championship via the play-offs.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.