Henrikh Mkhitaryan should be available to face Manchester United this weekend, but won’t play a part in Arsenal’s Europa League semi-final first-leg on Thursday.

In Arsene Wenger’s press conference on Wednesday, he would only confirm that the Armenian “is not back in the squad” to face Atletico Madrid. Reporter Simon Collings revealed that Mkhitaryan is still currently rehabilitating away from the squad.

Meanwhile Layth Yousif posted on Twitter to say he’s been told the 29-year-old is ‘close’. Chris Wheatley of Goal also posted the same thing, as well as the news that the playmaker won’t take part in Thursday’s match.

Further rumours on social media suggested Mkhitaryan could take part in an open training session in the afternoon.

It all suggests the former Manchester United man is on the verge of a return. From the sounds of things, he should be available in some capacity this weekend at Old Trafford.

Most likely he’ll only make an appearance from the bench though. It would be a bit of a risk to start him in a fairly irrelevant league game with the second-leg against Madrid the next Thursday. We’ll have to wait and see what happens over the next few days first.