Mikel Merino has returned to light training ahead of the visit of Leicester City in Saturday’s Premier League clash at Emirates Stadium.
Our summer signing was withdrawn from his first training session with us at the end of August after picking up a shoulder injury, but he’s been partially involved with the squad in the build-up to this weekend’s game.
“Tomorrow is too soon, the next week we will see,” Mikel Arteta said in his pre-match press conference on Friday. “He had partial training today, he’s been working so hard and is looking good. It is just about the healing of that bone and how mature that is to expose him to contact.
“We’re trying to keep him in the cage because he’s been pushing everybody, the physios, doctors, everybody! And he’s ready to go, he really wants it. I think we are comfortable now to start exposing him to contact and he looked really good in training.”
In other team news, we will be making a late call on the availability of David Raya, who sustained a thigh issue in last weekend’s 2-2 draw away to Manchester City.
“We have to wait 24 hours to see if he’s looking good or not that good,” Arteta added. “It’s not about taking a risk, it’s about a player being fit and available or not. When we have that clarity for Leicester, which is the main thing that we are thinking about at the moment, we will make a decision tomorrow.”
Should Raya miss out, Neto could be in line to make his debut for us after arriving on loan from Bournemouth in the summer. “He’s played in various countries at the highest level in different roles and has always fulfilled it in the right way,” Arteta added. “I believe he was the right player [to bring in] because he was in the Premier League, he had the experience, and he’s someone we can throw in at any moment.”
Arteta shared some positive updates on the availability of Jurrien Timber and Ben White: “Jurrien was able to take part in training today so that’s that’s good news. He will be available in the squad, and Ben hopefully as well.”
On Takehiro Tomiyasu, who has not featured so far this season due to a knee injury, Arteta said he’s making progress on his road to recovery. “He had partial training today and he looked good,” he explained. “He’s progressing really well and is a little bit behind Mikel, but we don’t know with Tomi because he’s another one that pushes every single day. He’s in a good place now I think.”
Lastly, there’s nothing to worry about regarding Myles Lewis-Skelly, who hobbled off of Wednesday’s 5-1 win over Bolton Wanderers in the Carabao Cup. “He’s fine,” Arteta confirmed. “He was cramping, but he has no issues.”
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.