Mikel Arteta has given an update on the fitness of Bukayo Saka and William Saliba among others as we prepare to host Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon.
Bukayo was unable to join up with England during the international break as he recovers from the hamstring injury he suffered in our last home game against Leeds United, and Mikel revealed the status of our number seven.
“Bukayo’s out, still out and he’s trying to get back as quick as possible, but we need to respect that process,” the boss said on Friday afternoon.
“He’s evolving really well, with very specific work at the moment, and the moment we increase that load, let’s see how he reacts.”
There was more positive news on William Saliba and Ben White: “Willy trained today so we’ll have a decision to make whether we play him or not, very good news. The rest (trained) as usual, and Ben White as well, Ben’s OK.”
Read more Every word from Arteta’s pre-Forest presser
While the likes of Bukayo Saka and William Saliba are looking to be back in the short term, Mikel also fielded questions on two of our long term absentees.
Kai Havertz suffered a knee injury in the first week of this season, but since undergoing surgery, the boss has been impressed with Kai’s recovery so far.
“He’s looking really good, he’s walking freely,” Mikel said at the Sobha Realty Training Centre.
“He’s starting to load the knee and to do some bits. As I said before, I think we’re taking it from weeks to months. But knowing Kai, I cannot give you any time scale because I know what he’s going to try to do, same with Gabi Jesus. So I think he’s in a good moment.
“It was a very tough decision for him to go and have that procedure done. But I think it was necessary and it was the right decision from the medical team to persuade him to do that.”
Along with Kai, we’re also without Gabriel Jesus as the forward recovers from a knee injury he sustained in January. Given the anticipated length of his recovery, Mikel opted not to include Gabi in our Champions League squad, a decision he was asked about on Friday.
“He had a major surgery that it was going to take him many, many months. So, after discussing with the medical staff and understanding the schedule that we had and when we thought that he could be available, that it would be between December and January, we decided to make the call like we’ve done it in the past with other players.
“Hopefully we did it wrong and he comes back earlier. But at the moment, the provision was very clear.”
While we will be without Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus for the foreseeable future, Mikel confirmed that we’ll have new signing Piero Hincapie available from tomorrow.
“Obviously we had the departure of Jakub, and now we needed another player in that position, that we could upgrade as well what we had. He’s ready to go.
“He’s trained only two days with us, he had a long travel with the national team, very successful game at the end against Argentina, but overall, he’s available.”
Read more Hincapie: “I want to leave my mark at this club”
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