Arteta’s update on Zubimendi and Odegaard fitness | Press conference | News

Mikel Arteta has provided updates on the fitness of several first-team players, including midfield duo Martin Odegaard and Martin Zubimendi, ahead of our trip to Craven Cottage to face Fulham on Saturday.

Our captain was forced off with a knee injury in our 2-0 victory over West Ham United before the international break, and Mikel is anticipating a spell on the sidelines for the Norwegian. “It will be weeks,” the boss said on Friday at the Sobha Realty Training Centre, “there’s no definite date for his return, but he’s evolving well.

“It’s very unlucky what’s happened to him and his injuries this season, but I think he will be back in a few weeks. We’ll have to see how he progresses, how the knee’s healing, and how he manages after the next steps in his rehab.”

There were more positive updates on other members of the squad, including Martin Zubimendi and Ben White, who will be available for selection against Fulham despite sitting out a portion of Thursday’s training session.

“All players come from different countries, with different amounts of games and minutes played,” Mikel explained. “We believe that [sitting Zubimendi out] was the right thing to do. He played two games again. His load has been really high recently and he needed an extra day, but he will be available.

“[White] is very similar. We are monitoring all the players and giving a specific menu to each of them to make sure that they are in the best condition.”

While Martin and Ben missed out on Thursday’s session, Piero Hincapie did take part in training and is nearing full match fitness, and could be in line to make his Premier League debut in Saturday’s London derby.

On Hincapie, the boss added: “He will be training today again with us and if everything is right, he will be available as well. He’s a player who is going to help us a lot, he’s going to bring something different to the team. We need to get him going, get to the speed that is necessary to compete at this level and gradually get him to where we want.”

Mikel also provided updates on two of our long-term absentees, Noni Madueke and Kai Havertz: “Noni is getting closer. He’s going to start very soon to do some running and stuff and then again, let’s see how that reacts.

“Kai is very difficult, there’s still a lot to do in his rehab. He’s really pushing it. We know Kai and that’s why we love him so much, but we have to wait and see.

“I think we are doing really good work with him again. He wants to break every timeline I’m sure, but that’s why we have to protect him and make sure that when he comes back, he comes back long term.”

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