{"id":667362,"date":"2026-03-29T08:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T12:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=667362"},"modified":"2026-03-29T09:32:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:32:19","slug":"arsenal-brace-piero-hinacapie-international-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/03\/29\/arsenal-brace-piero-hinacapie-international-duty\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal Brace For Injury Blow: ‘Warrior’ Leaves International Duty Early"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arsenal are in pole position to win this season\u2019s Premier League<\/span><\/a>, sitting nine points clear of Manchester City, with seven games left. Mikel Arteta\u2019s team recently lost 2-0 to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final. Despite that loss, Arsenal are still in the hunt for a potential treble-winning season. Next up for the Gunners is an FA Cup quarter-final against Southampton, but Arteta could be without key defender Piero Hincapie<\/span><\/a>, who has left the Ecuador international camp early, and will immediately return to Arsenal for further tests.<\/p>\n

Arsenal Continue Hunt for Premier League Trophy<\/h2>\n

Hincapie Returns to Arsenal Early<\/h3>\n

On September 1, 2025, Piero Hincapie<\/span><\/a> joined Arsenal on a season-long loan from Bayer Leverkusen. The Ecuadorian 23-year-old progressed quickly and went on to make more than 100 appearances for Leverkusen, playing a vital role for them in 2023\/24 when they won the Bundesliga title.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/strong>: Best Arsenal Players to Wear the Number 33 Jersey Ever<\/a><\/p>\n

Since moving to Arsenal, Hincapie has quickly become a vital cog for the Gunners, where he has played centre back and left back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For Ecuador, Hincapie has made 51 appearances, but as reported by Fabrizio Romano, the Arsenal man, described by Arteta as a “Warrior,<\/a>” will be leaving the Ecuador camp early, following medical tests. He will return to Arsenal immediately to be assessed by the Gunners staff this week.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

The Qualities of Piero Hincapie<\/h3>\n

Hincapie has already shown the versatility he brings to the Arsenal squad. Not only can he play in different positions, and play to a high standard in those positions.<\/p>\n

He revels in 1v1 situations and is capable of dominating talented attacking players. He times his tackles well and brings a reliability and calmness to the Arsenal defence.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Arsenal Players to Wear the Number 14 Jersey Ever<\/a><\/p>\n

He\u2019s comfortable with the ball at his feet and is a precise passer, adding another layer to his game. Hincapie is fast becoming a defensive linchpin for Arteta.<\/p>\n

Featured Image Credit<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

SmartFrame – SportImage<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal are in pole position to win this season\u2019s Premier League, sitting nine points clear of Manchester City, with seven games left. Mikel Arteta\u2019s team recently lost 2-0 to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final. Despite that loss, Arsenal are still in the hunt for a potential treble-winning season. Next up for the Gunners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4106,"featured_media":667364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<\/smartframe-embed>","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1830,8,30,3],"tags":[4372,9531],"class_list":["post-667362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-injuries","category-arsenal","category-news","category-premier-league","tag-mikel-arteta","tag-piero-hincapie"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667362"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667387,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667362\/revisions\/667387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}