Brazil defy Arsenal’s wishes as Gabriel Jesus joins up with the squad despite three weeks out with an injury

• Gabriel Jesus has been out of action with a hamstring injury since October 24 
• The forward will be assessed by Brazil’s medical team ahead of qualifiers  
• It’s a three-team title race… Toney could lead Arsenal to glory: It’s All Kicking Off

Gabriel Jesus has travelled to Brazil for international duty despite being unable to play for Arsenal for nearly three weeks due to an injury.

The striker damaged his hamstring during Arsenal’s win at Sevilla on October 24 and has not be included in a matchday squad since.

Jesus has been working on his recovery and watched from his box as his team-mates beat Burnley 3-1 on Saturday afternoon.

His injury did not stop Brazil making the decision to call him up last week and he has now made his way to his home country to join up with the squad. 

The forward will be assessed by Brazil’s medical team and they have the right to decide whether or not he can feature in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

Gabriel Jesus has travelled to Brazil for duty despite being injured for three weeks

Jesus suffered a hamstring injury during his side’s victory over Sevilla last month 

FIFA rules state countries are entitled to call up players and assess their injuries themselves.

Brazil boss Fernando Diniz had previously made it clear that this would be exactly what would happen. 

‘In the last call-up, we hadn’t called up [Gabriel] Martinelli, from Arsenal,’ he said. ‘He didn’t report to the CBF (Brazilian Football Federation) in a very complete way, so we didn’t imagine that Martinelli would be ready to play against Venezuela and Uruguay, and he was ready to play before our games.

Mikel Arteta is unlikely to be best pleased with Brazil’s decision to call up the forward 

‘Because of this too, we are going to bring Gabriel [Jesus] to find out the real conditions, because we still have 15 days until the games, so we believe that he can be able to play, because I like him a lot.

‘We have 24 players on the list, and if something happens to him we won’t need to change the squad.’ 

Brazil face Colombia on Friday before before a huge game against Argentina the following Wednesday. 

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