Mikel Arteta provided an update on Arsenal’s lingering injury worries ahead of their Premier League match against Burnley. While offering some hopeful signals, the Gunners will continue to navigate missing players as they fight for points.
Mikel Arteta remained evasive about specific players most likely to feature against Burnley. “The update is that some of them have been progressing better than others,” he said about current injured players. “We have a training session again today. Some of them they have done a few bits this week and I’m positive that hopefully, we’re going to get a few back for tomorrow.”
Arteta did provide more detail on players with significant injuries: “Thomas Partey as well is progressing really well. I don’t want to say too much but he’s looking very good and he’s on the field already.” On Fabio Vieira, he noted, “He’s very close [to a return]…he’s in a good place.” Arteta even hinted at Vieira’s return against Porto on Tuesday: “There is a chance.”
Acknowledging the challenges ahead, Arteta stressed the impact of injuries on squad depth. “We have to go game by game because at the moment in certain positions in the last few weeks we didn’t really have a choice [to rotate],” he said.
“We had to play them, we didn’t have any other players to do so and we had the chance during matches…to make some changes and adjust the minutes and the load of certain players.”
Arsenal’s current injuries
Emile Smith Rowe turned his ankle in training and was out of the squad for the game against West Ham. It is not clear when he will be back with ankle sprains taking anything from 2-3 weeks to recover from and 3-6 months.
Jorginho is currently carrying a foot injury but it was not serious enough to keep him off the bench for Arsenal’s 6-0 win over West Ham on Sunday.
Gabriel Jesus has another knee injury which was not expected to rule him out for long but the club are being quiet on an actual timeframe.
Oleksandr Zinchenko came off at half-time against Liverpool and was not in the squad for Arsenal’s game at the London Stadium and it is not clear when the club expect him back.
Fabio Vieira was due to return to training in mid-January from his groin surgery but has suffered a set-back. The last report, from his home country, suggested he would be back in mid-February.
Thomas Partey has been out since October and suffers a setback each time he gets close to returning.
Jurrien Timber has been included in Arsenal’s Champions League squad despite still recovering from the ACL injury he picked up on the opening day of the season. He could be back before the end of the season but that seems both risky and unlikely.