At a Glance:
- Bayern star will not be able to play at the World Cup
- The player in question was a promising name for Arsenal at one point
- Will miss out on potential Champions League final against the Gunners
Injuries can seriously affect a team’s form, no matter how good they are, and one team still hopeful of winning it all in the Champions League has just had a major setback to their dreams.
The club in question is Bayern Munich—who are interested in the Arsenal-linked Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Anthony Gordon—and the player is well-known to Gunners of a certain age.
This unfortunate news could be beneficial to Arsenal, given the fact that Bayern are a potential Champions League final opponent if Mikel Arteta’s men are able to progress past Atletico Madrid in their semi-final matchup.
READ MORE: Emmanuel Petit gives two-word answer about Arsenal sacking Mikel Arteta if he goes trophyless
Serge Gnabry injured in training for Bayern Munich and will miss the 2026 World Cup
A recent post from Fabrizio Romano on X (formerly Twitter) has confirmed that Bayern winger Serge Gnabry picked up a muscle tear in training and, therefore, will miss the opportunity to represent Germany at the upcoming World Cup.
The former Arsenal talent has played 214 games for Bayern over the past nine years, at the time of writing, and has scored 78 times for the club, winning seven Bundesliga titles as well as hoisting the Champions League trophy with the German team in 2020.
He has scored eight goals in 21 league games for the Bavarians so far in 2025/26, but per the emerging news, his season will end with that total overall.
Known for his ‘lightning quick’ pace, according to his at-the-time Werder Bremen coach Alexander Nouri, he was also given credit by iconic Gunners coach Arsene Wenger, who said in 2020 that he ‘knew [Gnabry] would have a great career.”
This lack of availability will mean that not only will Gnabry miss out on a potential Champions League clash on the biggest of stages against Arsenal in the final, but he will also miss out on going to the United States with his national team this summer.
Germany’s World Cup group includes Curacao, Ivory Coast, and Ecuador, with the South American team being the nation of Arsenal defender Piero Hincapie.
What went wrong for Serge Gnabry at Arsenal?
Serge Gnabry joined Arsenal at the young age of 16, first as a part of the North London club’s academy, before somewhat breaking through and making 10 appearances for the club between 2012 and 2016.
A loan spell at West Brom in 2015 drew significant negative attention to Gnabry, who was told by Tony Pulis that he was ‘not good enough’ for the Baggies, a team he only made one appearance for in total.
His form started to improve once he moved back to Germany, citing his reason for moving as lack of game time, scoring 11 goals in 27 games at the age of 21 for Werder Bremen in the 2016/17 season.
Gnabry would spend the prime of his career at Bayern where he remains to this day, where he is contracted to play for until 2028, of which by then he will be 32.
