Arsenal‘s preparations for their Champions League tie against Napoli were disrupted after they were caught up in the travel chaos engulfing UK airports.
The Gunners are back in European action on Wednesday when they face the Italian side in Naples.
However, Mikel Arteta‘s pre-match press conference on Tuesday night had to be cancelled after Arsenal’s flight to Italy was delayed.
That was because of the air traffic control issues in the UK, with planes at most major UK airports grounded on Tuesday following a ‘technical failure’.
The problem has seen almost 300 flights from the UK cancelled, impacting thousands of holidaymakers along with the Premier League champions.
Arsenal’s squad are now not set to arrive in Naples until 9.30PM local time.
Arsenal’s preparations for their Champions League tie against Napoli were disrupted after they were caught up in the travel chaos engulfing UK airports
Hundreds of flights were cancelled after an air traffic control ‘technical failure’
It was reported that they remained at the club’s London Colney-based training ground while they were waiting for the issue to be resolved, before travelling to the airport later on when their new flight time was announced.
At around 6.30PM, Arsenal then shared a video on their X account of the squad boarding a plane.
In an update on Tuesday afternoon, National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said it had identified an issue with its ‘flight processing system’, adding that ‘recovery will take some time’, but said it had ‘implemented a fix’.
The organisation, which provides air traffic control services to 15 UK airports, gave no details as to the cause of the problem.
But a spokesperson told the Daily Mail there is currently no indication the issue is due to a hack or other cyber incident.
In more positive news for the Gunners, Jurrien Timber is set to be included in their squad for the match.
The Dutch defender last featured off the bench in the Champions League final against PSG in May.
However, that was his first appearance in more than two months and he subsequently missed the World Cup through injury.
Speaking ahead of their Premier League tie against Chelsea on Sunday, Arteta had provided a positive update on Timber and hinted that a return was not too far away.
‘Jurrien is in really good condition at the moment, he’s been a few weeks on the pitch and has been training with us, so he’s in a really good place,’ Arteta said.
‘We will decide [on his involvement on Sunday] after training [on Saturday].’
Arsenal defender Jurrien Timber is set to be in their squad following a lengthy injury lay-off
Napoli have three points from three league games so far this season and their squad includes former Premier League stars such as Kevin De Bruyne, Rasmus Hojlund and Billy Gilmour.
Former Man United man Scott McTominay will miss out though, after recently undergoing corrective heart surgery.
In a statement released earlier this month, Napoli had said: ‘Following the onset of a mild benign arrhythmia, Scott McTominay will undergo corrective surgery using a cardiac arrhythmia ablation (PFA) in the coming days.
‘He will be available again after the international break.’
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