Arsenal have finally issued an official update on the injury status of Rob Holding, after multiple absences from the first-team squad.

Holding hasn’t been in an Arsenal squad since the Leicester game one month ago, with rumours of an injury setback. The centre-back came off after 77 minutes that day, after his first Premier League start of the season.

Despite not featuring on any of Arsenal’s injury updates from then until now, the defender missed out entirely on the squads for Southampton, Frankfurt, Norwich and Brighton. Finally, the club have today confirmed he has knee bruising.

Arsenal seem to be downplaying the knock. They write that they’re simply assessing Holding ahead of Monday’s game.

Perhaps the reason for the delayed announcement was so they had more time to evaluate the problem before panicking people with news of a setback. The fact they’ve now made it official is reassuring that it isn’t more serious, at least.

Given the poor form of David Luiz, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Shkodran Mustafi, as well as Calum Chambers playing at right-back, Arsenal could use Holding back soon. There’s no point rushing him and causing another setback though.

Rob Holding praised Hector Bellerin in helping him return from injury the first time around, and the pair will surely help each out again with their recent setbacks.