Fabio Vieira claims he’s set to return to training in a few days, as he approaches his comeback from an injury he sustained before signing for Arsenal.

Though Fabio Vieira was Arsenal’s first major signing of the summer, arriving between the £3m deal for Marquinhos and the later acquisitions of Matt Turner and Gabriel Jesus, he’s the only new signing not to have featured on the pitch so far.

The midfielder has joined the Arsenal squad on tour to Germany and the USA, but an injury he sustained on international duty in early June has kept him out of action.

Vieira has now confirmed his current situation in an interview with The Athletic.

“It’s a small injury I got with the national team one month ago,” he said.

“Now I feel really good. I’m not training 100 percent yet, but I’m running. Day after day, I’m improving. And in a few days, I’ll be back in full training with my teammates.”

There’s still some time for Vieira to get involved in pre-season matches before the new season begins.

If he’s in full training by midweek next week, that gives him a good shot at either making the Chelsea friendly next Sunday or the Emirates Cup match against Sevilla the following Saturday.

Any involvement in those matches would give him a much better shot at making the squad to face Crystal Palace on August 5th in the Premier League opener.

Vieira had a breakthrough campaign with Porto last season, scoring seven goals and assisting 16 in 39 appearances (21 starts). That works out as a goal contribution every 87 minutes.

The Portugal u21 international also scored seven goals and assisted two in eight games for his national team’s youth side over the same period, after winning Player of the Tournament at the u21 Euros last summer.

Even in the game where he injured himself, Vieira scored twice in 63 minutes. He could be an exciting addition to Mikel Arteta’s side.