Carl Jenkinson is due to play his first match since January against Southampton’s u23s on Friday night.

The rightback injured his cruciate ligament during West Ham’s clash with Manchester City last season and had to have his knee operated on.

Since then, he’s slowly been returning to full training and regaining fitness for Arsenal. However, the next step is playing a match and for this we can’t just chuck him on the pitch in the Premier League.

During Arsene Wenger’s press conference on Thursday ahead of our match with Swansea at the weekend, the boss confirmed that the defender was penciled in to make an appearance for Arsenal’s u23s at Meadow Park on Friday evening.

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/786481481400983552

Even then, it’ll probably be a while before we see Jenko return fully.

Hopefully, the 24-year-old gets some minutes on the pitch and comes out of it feeling stronger. We’ll keep you updated on how he does.