Reiss Nelson made another step forward in his progress towards full fitness and a debut for Feyenoord, making the squad on Sunday.

Arsenal winger Reiss Nelson joined Feyenoord on loan on transfer deadline day, after signing a contract extension with his parent club.

Following Jonathan Dinzeyi’s debut for Carlisle United last week, Nelson is the only Arsenal loanee yet to play a minute for his temporary team.

Nelson finally began training again with Feyenoord recently, after reports of issues with the intensity of their regime and his own fitness problems. On Sunday, he made the matchday squad for the first time.

Feyenoord were facing Vitesse, and Nelson was on the bench for the Eredivisie side. He didn’t come on as his team lost 2-1, but you’d now expect him to start getting involved after the international break.

Slot initially confirmed that Nelson had picked up an overload injury soon after joining Feyenoord on loan. At the time, he suggested this was due to the fact the training sessions were more ‘spicy’ for Nelson at Feyenoord than Arsenal.

“Nelson had participated in almost all training sessions at Arsenal, but he experiences the training sessions here as a bit more spicy”, Slot said. “He ran into an overload injury and so he is not here.”

He later clarified that he didn’t mean Arsenal’s training sessions weren’t committed, just that Nelson wouldn’t have been training in the same way as a squad player at Arsenal versus as a potential starter at Feyenoord.

“I’m not saying anything about how Arsenal train; I’m saying something about how substitute player Reiss Nelson, who didn’t have much of a future there, trained,” Slot explained.

“He was very often in the team that had to imitate the opponent. He didn’t actually play any matches.

“Now he is with a team that is busy and where he is seen as a player who has to play a lot, so that combination has caused him to have some overload problems.”