Mikel Arteta has confirmed that William Saliba has been suffering with an ankle injury, but is unsure whether the centre-back will return to action this weekend against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The 24-year-old has missed Arsenal’s last four games, after completing 90 minutes against Bayern Munich in late November.

Arteta has repeatedly insisted Saliba is “a matter of days” away from returning, but asked what the issue is in his pre-Wolves press conference, the Spaniard said: “It was something quite small. It came from an ankle injury he had and then it started to modify the way he was running.

“Then he started to overload an area, which is common, but at some point he was uncomfortable training and playing and we had to stop it. It looks better, but we have to see if it’s (recovered) enough for him to train with the team.”

On whether this weekend’s game will come too soon, the Arsenal manager added: “We have to wait and see. Yesterday, we didn’t train, he hasn’t trained with us yet. We train this afternoon. Let’s see if he will be available or not.

“It remains the same. If you ask me about the Everton game, I think he will be fit. For tomorrow, I don’t know.”

Arteta admitting that Saliba’s most recent injury started with an ankle issue tallies with the defender’s injury history for this season. His first lay-off came from a twisted ankle which forced him off four minutes into the 1-0 defeat at Liverpool in August.

Earlier this month, Arteta said that twisted ankle was the result of “a really random and unlucky action” before labelling the latest issue as “bizarre”.

In Saliba’s absence, Cristhian Mosquera (who is facing weeks out injured), Jurrien Timber (recovering from a knock) and Christian Norgaard have all filled in as right-sided centre-backs.

Asked whether Timber could return against Wolves, Arteta said: “It’s a matter of days. But whether it’s tomorrow or not, we’ll see.”

Arteta spoke of the need to give his players rest both physically and mentally in order to return to winning ways after their 2-1 defeat by Aston Villa last time out in the league, with his side having a full week between Saturday’s game against Wolves and their next match, away at Everton, on December 20.