Gordon, Gakpo & Watkins: FPL injury news ahead of Gameweek 25

Gameweek 25 of the Fantasy Premier League kicks off on Friday evening, with Chelsea’s visit to Brighton & Hove Albion meaning that managers will have to make all their transfers by 18:30 GMT – but as always, there are quite a few injury worries for players to keep across ahead of the deadline.

Anthony Gordon, Cody Gakpo and Ollie Watkins are among the players with worrying yellow and orange triangles floating next to their names in the FPL app, and as always we’ve scoured the news report and listened in to the managers’ press conferences to keep you up-to-date with all the latest updates on those three and many more who could miss out.

Details of everyone who could miss time are below, but if you’re also in need of some more general advice before making your moves, don’t forget to check out our resident FPL expert’s latest advice column by clicking here. This week, it covers Liverpool and Aston Villa’s double gameweek and picks out some interesting differential options from Chelsea and Arsenal.

Anthony Gordon

The Newcastle winger picked up a groin injury which sidelined him for the FA Cup fourth-round win over Birmingham City last weekend, but the good news is that Eddie Howe reckons he “should be fine” to play away to Manchester City on Saturday afternoon having responded well to treatment.

He isn’t the only doubt for the Magpies, however. Dan Burn, a relatively popular budget option in defence, is recovering from a knock but is likely to play, while Sven Botman is expected to miss out despite Howe confirming that his latest injury isn’t expected to be long-term.

Cody Gakpo & Trent Alexander-Arnold

At the time of writing, the FPL app hadn’t acknowledged that Gakpo could miss out against Wolves on Sunday, but he may not play a full part in Liverpool’s double gameweek – the Dutchman is “a bit of a doubt”, according to Arne Slot, because of an unspecified injury picked up at the weekend. Details are thin on the ground, unfortunately, and it isn’t at all clear how much football the forward will play over the next five days.

Anyone fretting over Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was only a substitute in the Merseyside Derby in midweek, should at least be reassured by Slot’s comments on Friday – he is in full training this week and while his minutes were managed due to a knock, it sounds likely that he will be available to start if required.

Ollie Watkins & Ezri Konsa

Aston Villa have a handful of injury concerns hanging over their heads right now. Watkins missed last weekend’s FA Cup win over Tottenham Hotspur with a minor injury and with Unai Emery keeping his cards close to his chest, he had been down as a doubt for this weekend too - but it sounds as if he’s on the mend, with Emery telling the media that he had trained on Friday and was in the squad. Whether he plays the full 90 minutes is unclear, but he should feature.

Defender Konsa, meanwhile, is owned by 6.4% of FPL managers but came off during that win over Spurs with an injury. Emery’s comments after the match suggested that the problem was relatively minor, but he has now been confirmed to be out for Saturday’s game against Ipswich Town.

Kai Havertz & Ben White

Most readers will have caught the news by now, but some players may be misled by the ‘25% chance’ that Havertz players which is currently claimed by the app – the German tore his hamstring during a training camp in Dubai and is out for the rest of the season. Gabriel Martinelli likewise has an orange flag against his name in the game, but is out for up to a month with a hamstring issue of his own.

Mikel Arteta may have a track record of telling half-truths when it comes to injuries, but an outright lie about Havertz’s availability would be bold, even for the Spaniard, so we’ll take his word on this one. Some interesting news from Areta’s press conference, however, is that Ben White, a long-term absentee who was assumed to be some weeks from a return, is now “available” again. It seems unlikely that he will start straight away, but it’s one to watch.

Iliman Ndiaye

Quite a few players snapped up the Everton forward ahead of last week’s double due to his impressive recent form, but there’s bad news for anyone hoping that he’ll be fit to play after coming off injured against Liverpool on Wednesday – he will be out for up to six weeks with a medial ligament injury. David Moyes confirmed the injury, but not the timeline, which has been reported elsewhere.

James Maddison

The Spurs midfielder is among the most reliable points scorers in the league when fit and playing, but has missed the last two matches with a calf injury - but Ange Postecgolou described him as “good to go” in a rare good news day for Spurs on the injury front. First-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario is back, too, with Destiny Udogie and Brennan Johnson potentially available as well. Micky van de Ven’s return, meanwhile, is “imminent”, although it sounds like he might not feature this weekend. Cristian Romero isn’t ready yet.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis

The budget-friendly Southampton centre-back sits on quite a few players’ benches, but anyone debating handing him a start against high-flying Bournemouth will be disappointed - Saints manager Ivan Juric told the media that he was “not ready” to return from an ankle injury. He should be back soon, however, so it may not be time to sell him in a panic, especially if he’s gathering dust at the bottom of the screen anyway.

Justin Kluivert

The on-song Bournemouth winger has been a popular pick-up in recent weeks and isn’t injured – but an amusing story from social media saw an FPL player on Facebook asking the Dutchman whether he would be missing this weekend because his partner is due to give birth to twins. Kluivert replied himself to reassure the fan that he would be playing, although in this day and age we perhaps can’t confirm that it really was Kluivert in the comments…