Isak, Timber & Wood: Latest FPL injury news for Gameweek 31

It’s been a bit of a bloodbath of late - ahead of a decisive run of fixtures in the Fantasy Premier League, a string of popular players have gone down with new injuries and thousands of FPL aficionados will need to know how the likes of Alexander Isak, Jurriën Timber, Ola Aina and Chris Wood are getting along. Fortunately, we’ve got all of the latest updates for you below.

Is Isak injured? Will Wood still be out? We’ve listened in to the manager’s press conferences and pored over media reports to work out who’s fit, who’s likely to miss out, and what the news might mean for your team ahead of Gameweek 31.

Should you need some more specific advice, our resident FPL expert also covers some ideas for replacements in his latest advice column, while he also dived into the stats to work out whether Omar Marmoush is a must-have with Erling Haaland out injured.

Alexander Isak

A yellow flag that will have had about 60% of players fretting over the course of the last couple of days – Isak was taken off before the end of Newcastle’s game against Brentford, with Eddie Howe telling the media that he “wasn’t feeling 100%” thanks to a slight groin injury.

Howe said, rather unhelpfully, that he would have to “wait and see” how Isak was today, implying that he would train but that his status was uncertain. The same applies to Kieran Trippier, while Anthony Gordon is a bigger doubt - he still hasn’t returned to full training after the bruised leg he picked up while playing for England a couple of weeks ago. We suspect that Isak and Trippier will be strapped up and sent out there, especially given that they have until Monday to get them healthy, but the case for captaining Salah over Isak is rather strong.

Jurriën Timber & Gabriel Magalhães

Most players will already have seen that centre-back Gabriel is out for the rest of the season thanks to a hamstring injury which will require surgery – but he wasn’t the only Arsenal defender to limp off during the 2-1 defeat of Fulham.

Dutchman Timber picked up a knock to the knee during the match against the Cottagers but Mikel Arteta said during his press conference on Friday that “there is a chance” that Timber features, while Ben White is in the same boat. With Riccardo Calafiori also ruled out this week, at least one of White or Timber is very likely to be fixed up and sent out simply due to the reduced numbers, but Arteta is always an unreliable narrator when it comes to his players’ fitness. Unfortunately, we simply don’t know if Timber will be involved or not, or for how long.

Chris Wood & Ola Aina

Ahead of the midweek matches, Nuno Espirito Santo told the press that Wood’s fitness was a “day by day” situation, and he eventually missed the 1-0 win over Manchester United. Now, a few days, later, Santo has updated us by telling us that his hip issue is… “day by day”. “Hopefully” he will be back, but it sounds rather touch and go.

We have worse news, however, for Aina owners. A scan revealed a calf issue that was picked up against United and the Nigerian defender will be unavailable “for a while”, although Santo said more specifically that he’ll miss the game against Aston Villa and then be a doubt for Everton. So not that serious, but worth swapping him out for Neco Williams or Nikola Milenković.

Trent Alexander-Arnold & Alisson

We don’t yet know when Alexander-Arnold will return from an ankle injury but just in case you have been hopefully holding on to him, Arne Slot has confirmed that he and Joe Gomez will both be out “for the coming weeks”. Which is vague, but it’s time to sell one way or the other. Goalkeeper Alisson, meanwhile, was a slightly surprising absentee last week – he is working through a concussion protocol and it seems that he took a bigger hit to the head on Brazil duty than we realised. A significant doubt for the weekend, but hopefully not long term.

Justin Kluivert

The Dutch winger missed the midweek defeat to Ipswich Town with a muscular problem and could be out of action again this weekend. Andoni Iraola told reporters on Friday that while he “wouldn’t say [Kluivert] is definitely out” it would be “difficult” for him to recover sufficiently to play. A full 90 minutes sound very unlikely – one for the bench or, given Bournemouth’s downturn in form, a transfer out.

Dwight McNeil

A popular budget enabler earlier in the season, Everton’s filthy fixture list for the next few weeks means we doubt many players are seriously considering signing McNeil – but for anyone who wants to gamble on a post-injury resurgence, both he and Iliman Ndiaye are back in training and “getting closer” to being involved. Touch and go for the weekend, but they should be ready to roll next time out.