Arsenal fans spotted Jurrien Timber walking without his crutches ahead of the squad photoshoot this week, as he works on his recovery from injury.

On Monday, the entire Arsenal squad got together at London Colney for the annual squad photoshoot, including the contingent of injured players.

Jurrien Timber was among the group, and Arsenal fans spotted that he was walking around unaided.

Timber underwent surgery on his anterior cruciate ligament last month, and supporters have been looking out for any signs of when he might be back.

The defender had previously been on crutches, as you’d expect after such a serious surgery.

Unfortunately, there’s not too much to read into Timber coming off crutches.

NHS guidance suggests that you should be able to walk without crutches two-to-three weeks after surgery, so the only positive to take from this update is that Timber is currently on schedule.

The player is still very unlikely to play football for at least six months after his surgery, and most players take closer to a year to get back to their old level.

In Timber’s case, the six-month mark would be around February, but as we’ve seen with Mohamed Elneny, it can take a few months after initially joining training to get back onto the pitch for a competitive fixture again.

Most likely, Timber isn’t going to play a significant role for Arsenal for the remainder of the season, and we’ll be lucky to see him back out there in a match before the campaign ends.

But you never know, it wouldn’t be the first time a player has returned from an ACL rupture sooner than that.