Mikel Arteta has confirmed Arsenal’s injury news ahead of Saturday’s match against Everton, including a few pieces of good news.
Arsenal will welcome back Riccardo Calafiori for their trip to Everton on Saturday, with the defender now having served his suspension, but the Gunners are set to be without five more players due to injury.
Starting with the newest of those five injuries, Ben White will be unavailable, though Mikel Arteta suggested in Friday’s press conference that the defender shouldn’t be gone too long.
“[White] is out,” Arteta confirmed. “He’s evolving well. It’s not a major injury, but it will keep him out for a few games I think. Ben is a really fast healer as well, so let’s hope that we’re going to have him in the next few games.”
Reports had suggested a month-long injury for White, and it’s unclear whether that’s the timeline Arteta is expecting too. But it’s evidently not going to be significantly longer than that.
Then there’s Gabriel Magalhaes and Kai Havertz, both of whom have been out for a while, with the duo now closing in on their comebacks. Starting with Gabriel, Arteta revealed that the defender is now taking part in sessions on the pitch.
“[Gabriel] is pushing hard, as he always does every time he’s out,” Arteta said. “He’s evolving really well – he’s doing pitch sessions – so he’s not too far. We have to see in the last stages of that rehab how he progresses. But we are quite positive about it.”
As for Havertz, a report from the Daily Mail on Thursday suggested Havertz’s target was either the Liverpool game on January 8th or the FA Cup match against Portsmouth three days later. Arteta confirmed that it won’t be long now.
“[Havertz] is progressing really well and quite fast in the last few weeks,” Arteta insisted. “We are really positive that if everything continues like that in the next training sessions, he’s going to be with us soon.
“I do (have a game in mind). I don’t want to say because, again, I think in that last part, especially after such a long time, that after the rehab, I think we need to be cautious.
“We need to go really firmly with every step that we take along the way to make sure that when he’s back, he’s back and he’s back for the long term.”
Max Dowman and Cristhian Mosquera also remain out, but Arteta had good news on Martin Zubimendi. The midfielder wasn’t spotted in a recent open training session in front of the media, but the Arsenal boss explained that was just load management.
“That was load management for a few players that played a lot of minutes recently,” Arteta confirmed. “So that’s probably the reason why.”