Mikel Arteta is hoping to have Bukayo Saka AND Gabriel Martinelli back after the next international break.
They could even return to face Fulham on Tuesday, April 1, to give Arsenal’s run-in a huge boost after their devastating injury list.
It means Arsenal will be without Saka and Martinell for the next six games but the hope is they will step up training during that period and then be ready for the business end of the campaign.
Gunners winger Martinelli suffered a hamstring injury in the Carabao Cup semi final defeat at Newcastle and his lay-off has been uncertain. But Martinelli, who went on the club’s warm weather break to Dubai last week, is making steady progress and is hoping to be back to give Arsenal’s injury-hit forward line a major lift.
Saka underwent surgery on his hamstring tear in December and was last week pictured working in the gym as his rehabilitation and recovery is going well. The initial prognosis was him pushing to train by the end of February and then being fit to play during March.
That now looks a realistic target to allay fears that he could be out for longer amid suggestions he could be sidelined for another two months. But Saka will now over the course of the next few weeks step up his rehab, return to training and then get out onto the grass with his teammates.
England have back-to-back World Cup qualifiers with Albania and Latvia on March 21 and 24 respectively and Saka will miss Thomas Tuchel’s first games in charge. But it now looks realistic for him to play soon after which is a massive help because Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz have already been ruled out for the rest of the season.
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It should mean Arsenal will have their wingers back for the title run-in and also a potential Champions League quarter final. It comes after suggestions that Saka had suffered a slight setback in his comeback, something that Arteta refused to confirm ahead of the weekend win against Leicester.
Asked if those reports were true, Arteta simply replied “no” before adding: “We have a long-term injury, what is faster? In a ten-day injury, three days is a lot. But its too early, he’s in an early stage of rehab. When we do more we will stack on more load.”
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