Mikel Merino is doing sprint and conditioning work whilst Jurrien Timber hasn’t been ruled out of a return this season, but the news doesn’t look good for Ben White.
Football insider Hand of Arsenal reports that Mikel Merino is understood to be doing sprint and conditioning work with Arsenal as it stands, with the club cautious about putting him on ball work too soon.
Merino has now been out of action for well over three months, but he only has a little over two weeks to make his comeback if he wants to play for the Gunners again this season.
The same report claims Jurrien Timber hasn’t been ruled out of a return to action this season, after some setbacks to his groin injury during March and April. The player is planning one final push to see if he can make his comeback ahead of the campaign’s conclusion.
Those were the only two injury concerns ahead of Arsenal’s match against West Ham United at the weekend, but the club have unfortunately picked up two further problems since then.
Ben White’s knee injury appeared to be relatively serious on first viewing, and further testing has confirmed he will be out for the remainder of the season with an MCL problem.
Then Riccardo Calafiori was forced off at half-time in the West Ham game, and it’s unclear whether or not his problem is a genuine concern for the remaining matches.
Calafiori perhaps has a different set of incentives to the other three, given Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup. The left-back can afford to take more risks over these next few weeks, knowing he’ll have a couple of months off afterwards.
Merino and Timber will all have one eye on this summer, so they may not be so willing to gamble on their fitness for Arsenal’s last games – despite the significance of those remaining fixtures.
With two trophies on the line, Arsenal need all the help they can get for the final fortnight of matches.
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