Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber are both unlikely to be involved for Arsenal against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday night, after missing training on Monday.

Though Mikel Arteta didn’t rule either of them out in his pre-match press conference, it doesn’t look like Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber will be fit to face Shakhtar Donetsk in Arsenal’s midweek Champions League clash.

On Saka, Arteta had said that the winger was “progressing really well”, but added “let’s see how [he] is after the training session later on”.

As for Timber, the Arsenal boss said: “He’s going to be close (to involvement against Shakhtar). We have to see how he deals with training with the whole group.”

In both cases, it seems the key factor was whether they could get through a group training session on Monday. So it was bad news when reporters at the session later in the day revealed that neither were involved.

Simon Collings reports for the The Standard that Saka and Timber were both absent from the session, with Saka struggling with a hamstring problem and Timber also trying to overcome a muscular problem.

As well as Saka and Timber, Arsenal will also be without Martin Odegaard for the match, with Arteta confirming that the club captain is “still not fit”.

Loan goalkeeper Neto will return to the squad after being ineligible against parent club Bournemouth, whilst William Saliba will be available despite his red card at the weekend, as he’ll serve his suspension domestically against Liverpool.

Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney are Arsenal’s other two injury absentees at the moment.