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.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old has missed Arsenal\u2019s last four games, after completing 90 minutes against Bayern Munich in late November.<\/p>\n
Arteta has repeatedly insisted Saliba is \u201ca matter of days\u201d away from returning, but asked what the issue is in his pre-Wolves press conference, the Spaniard said: \u201cIt was something quite small. It came from an ankle injury he had and then it started to modify the way he was running.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen 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\u2019s (recovered) enough for him to train with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
On whether this weekend\u2019s game will come too soon, the Arsenal manager added: \u201cWe have to wait and see. Yesterday, we didn\u2019t train, he hasn\u2019t trained with us yet. We train this afternoon. Let\u2019s see if he will be available or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt remains the same. If you ask me about the Everton game, I think he will be fit. For tomorrow, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arteta admitting that Saliba\u2019s most recent injury started with an ankle issue tallies with the defender\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Arteta said that twisted ankle was the result of \u201ca really random and unlucky action\u201d before labelling the latest issue as \u201cbizarre\u201d.<\/p>\n