Gabriel Martinelli has confirmed he’s now fully fit again after his injury, and he’s confident for the new campaign.
After missing out on Arsenal’s first two pre-season friendlies against Watford and FC Nurnberg, Gabriel Martinelli made a cameo appearance against the MLS All-Star team on Wednesday night.
The Brazilian winger made a positive impact in just over 30 minutes on the pitch, scoring clinically after a clever through ball from Martin Odegaard.
But with such limited minutes so far, there are obviously still some questions around Martinelli’s fitness.
The 22-year-old missed the last couple of games of the 2022/23 campaign with an ankle problem, and it took until Wednesday for him to return to the pitch.
Fortunately, Martinelli says he’s back to full fitness now, and he’s ready for the Premier League’s return.
“I am fully back now and confident to start the new season,” Martinelli said. “It’s easy to play when you have so many players like [Arsenal’s summer signings].
“It was difficult to miss the last two games of the season and then I went to the break and tried to recover as soon as possible. That’s what I did and now I’m fully back and ready to go again.
“It’s so important we have options because we have too many games in the season and it’s going to be tough again. We are ready to go and it’s good to have so many options.”
There are still plenty of pre-season fixtures to come for Arsenal, with the Gunners set to face Manchester United and Barcelona in the U.S., before returning to play against AS Monaco in the Emirates Cup and Manchester City in the Community Shield.
Martinelli will look to make a few starts during that period so he’ll be up to full speed by the time Nottingham Forest visit the Emirates on August 12th.