Mikel Arteta admits he’ll have to make a late call on Oleksandr Zinchenko’s fitness ahead of our FA Cup third-round clash against Liverpool.
The Ukrainian full-back sat out our defeat at Fulham on New Year’s Eve after suffering a calf issue, and with Takehiro Tomiyasu linking up with his Japan teammates ahead of the Asian Cup the boss will be hoping that Alex can play some part if needed against the Reds.
Handing the media an update in his pre-match press conference, Mikel said: “He is progressing well. We have another training session tomorrow and we will evaluate whether he is available or not to play and start the game.”
The boss also offered diagnosis on a few other players who have been sidelined in recent weeks, including Thomas Partey who was omitted from Ghana’s squad for the Africa Cup of Nations due to his ongoing muscle issue that has seen him out of action since early October.
On why Thomas wasn’t selected by the Black Stars, he added: “It was about common sense. He has a long-term injury and he really wanted to push his rehab. He really wanted to be with the national team but he is still far from training with the team and it didn’t make a lot of sense for him to be involved.
“Hopefully it’s weeks [until he’s fit again]. How many weeks it will be will depend a little bit on how long the next step of training with the team will take him, but he’s progressing well.”
Our other two stars currently in the treatment room are Fabio Vieira and Jurrien Timber. Fabio underwent groin surgery in November and the boss revealed that the procedures went well and he hopes to have the Portuguese midfielder available for selection by the end of the month should things continue in the right way.
“He’s doing well again, but it was a surgery that required two different things to get results,” Mikel said. “The first signs are good, obviously he is still a bit far from where we want him, but he needs to keep working and hopefully in the next few weeks we can have him [available].
“Unfortunately, [Jurrien] is a very long-term injury. He is doing really well but he is still far from being fit to train with the team, or something to compete with the team so we don’t expect him back anytime soon."
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