England are still expecting Bukayo Saka to link up with Gareth Southgate’s squad on Monday, despite Mikel Arteta ruling him out.

Bukayo Saka missed Arsenal’s win over Manchester City at the weekend with an injury, after some initial hopes that he might make it back in time for the fixture.

While Saka’s fitness status was still uncertain, England boss Gareth Southgate called the winger up to his squad for the October international break.

But after the win over City, Mikel Arteta told the media Saka wouldn’t be available for international duty.

“No, he could not make it,” Arteta said. “He has not had a single training session, so he will be out. He’s not available to play football at the moment.”

Yet that might not be the end of the story. The Evening Standard report that the FA are still expecting Saka to report for England duty on Monday, to be assessed by England medical staff.

Arsenal want Saka to rest for the entire international break, but England are hoping to have him available for their Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy, even if he misses the prior friendly against Australia.

England are currently six points clear at the top of their qualification group with three games remaining, but they’re not quite home and dry just yet.

Italy are six points behind with a game in hand, so if they beat England and win their extra game, they’ll draw level.

Even so, two teams qualify from every group, so it would require Ukraine or North Macedonia (both on the same number of points as Italy) to catch up as well before England would be denied a spot at the Euros.

If Gareth Southgate is thinking long-term, the risk of giving Saka more serious injury problems is surely not worth this one game that likely won’t stop England from qualifying even if they lose it.