Mikel Arteta has admitted that William Saliba will once again be unavailable for this weekend’s game at West Ham United, but Eddie Nketiah is back in contention to play some part.
The mixed news came in his pre-match press conference, as Mikel suggested the French defender will be forced to watch from the sidelines again on Sunday with the same back injury that has seen him miss the past three matches.
However he is hopeful that he could return to on-pitch action at London Colney sooner rather than later, which happened with Nketiah this week who had been out since our 4-0 win against Everton on March 1 but Arteta feels he has seen enough from the England under-21 international to put him in his plans again.
Shedding some light on the Saliba situation, Mikel said: “William is still not available. He’s progressing well and we are hopeful we’ll have him available in the next few weeks, but we’ll have to see.
“He’s not far from starting to do that [return to training]. Obviously we need to be cautious because of the injury, but he’s evolving well.
“Eddie is back and is fully fit now. We want our players to be as fit as possible and available. We’ve had some issues, especially in the last few months with some important players. We just want to have everybody fit and available to help the team.”
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