Mikel Arteta and his medical team will use this weekend to determine the availability of Thomas Partey, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Gabriel Jesus ahead of Monday’s trip to Sheffield United.
It’s an 8pm kick-off in the Premier League at Bramall Lane and all four players could be in contention, depending on their progress this weekend.
“Thomas had a session before the last game and now he’s done two consecutive sessions so he should be part of the squad on Monday,” Mikel explained in his pre-match press conference at Sobha Realty Training Centre on Thursday afternoon.
"[Zinchenko and Tomiyasu] are possible but we have to wait and see, especially with the last two sessions that we have on Saturday and Sunday. If that’s the case, they might be available on Monday.”
Regarding Jesus, Mikel doesn’t expect our Brazilian forward to feature for 90 minutes against the Blades, but he could be involved from kick-off.
“He’s fit enough, but knowing how long he will last is something different probably, but we didn’t want to take any risks after the result that we had against Newcastle,” he added. “Obviously we need him fit. He’s a massive player for us and we want to make sure that now we load the players in the right way.”
Jurrien Timber will not be part of Monday’s squad, as he continues his recovery from a long-term ACL injury but did join in with training alongside our first-team at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.
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