Santi Cazorla and Nacho Monreal will miss Arsenal’s pre-season tour of Asia as they have been given time off after appearing for Spain at the Confederations Cup in Brazil which finishes tonight after the final between Spain and host nation Brazil.
Arsenal players will begin reporting for training this week before jetting off but Santi and Nacho will not be with their teammates.
Cazorla has so far only featured twice for Spain [against Uruguay and Tahiti] while Monreal has played just once against Tahiti. It is not clear if either of them will play a part in the final this evening [Sunday, 11pm GMT].
The Sun are speculating/panic-mongering that the pair will not be fit for the Premier League opening weekend on August 17th but I don’t see that being a problem given that they will only have a couple of weeks vacation and have been training with Spain until this point – they won’t have as much work to do to get back to their top level.
Of course, that all depends on how long Wenger gives them off.
It will, however, come as a blow to the Arsenal fans in Asia who were hoping to get a glimpse of the pair in action, Santi especially.
