Despite being out of action since then, Brazil national team coach Fernando Diniz decided to name the 26-year-old in his squad for his side's World Cup qualifiers against Colombia and Argentina, with the player now making the journey to South America. The Selecao's medical team will now assess Jesus' fitness status before deciding if he is ready to play.
Under FIFA rules, Brazil are allowed to call up the versatile forward and evaluate him themselves. Tensions appear to be brewing between the five-time World Cup winners and the Gunners as Diniz recently explained a prior injury to Gabriel Martinelli may have been a factor.
Speaking to Globo Esporte, he said: “In the last squad, we hadn’t called up Martinelli from Arsenal. He didn’t report to the CBF 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.
“Because of this too, we’re going to bring Gabriel [Jesus] in to find out his real condition, because we still have 15 days to go until the games, so we believe he could be fit enough to play, because I like him a lot. We have 24 players on the list, and if anything happens to him we won’t need to change the squad.”
According to ESPN Brasil, this has left the north London club feeling discontent behind the scenes. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta then addressed the situation over the weekend after his side defeated Burnley 3-1 in the Premier League, a game that Jesus was of course not fit enough to feature in. "I don't know [how the situation is], I'm going to talk to the doctors and him [Gabriel Jesus], because he didn't do any training with us," Arteta said.
"He's far from working with the team, but it's an internal communication between the club and the national team. The first intention is always to seek the best for the player."
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