Cedric Soares wants to fight for his place in the Arsenal team next season amid the extended lay-off rumours surrounding Takehiro Tomiyasu.

The Evening Standard report that following his loan spell to Fulham, Cedric Soares intends to return to Arsenal and earn his spot in Mikel Arteta’s squad.

Cedric still has a year left on his Arsenal deal, but he was widely expected to leave after going on loan in January. Instead, it now seems he may be set to stick around until the end of his contract.

Arsenal have reportedly indicated to Cedric that they want him to stay, and Takehiro Tomiyasu’s injury status may be playing a role here.

The Japan international suffered a significant right knee injury during Arsenal’s match against Sporting CP back in March. He underwent surgery on the problem on March 21st and was subsequently ruled out for the rest of the season.

At first, Arsenal wrote that everyone would be working hard with Tomiyasu so he can join pre-season training in the summer.

But since then, Mikel Arteta has suggested the absence could be longer than initially believed, hinting at six months out. That timeline would rule him out until late September.

Then The Telegraph reported that Tomiyasu could struggle to play much before Christmas.

We’ll need to wait a bit longer to get more clarity on Tomiyasu’s exact return date, but inclusion in pre-season certainly no longer appears likely.

That would give Cedric a chance to step in and rotate with Ben White for the time being.

With one game to go, Cedric has made 12 appearances in 2022/23, four for Arsenal and eight for Fulham.

He’ll certainly hope to feature more often in the new season, but White seems to have nailed down that right-back spot in Arteta’s first-choice lineup. It’s not going to be much easier to earn minutes next year.

If he stays, it wouldn’t be Cedric’s first Champions League campaign, as he featured in the group stage with Sporting CP back in 2014/15. But as with Arsenal, it’s been a while.