Gabriel Jesus is struggling with a knee problem (Picture: Getty Images)
Mikel Arteta was not giving too much away on Arsenal’s injury issues in his press conference on Friday, but did say a number of players who are fitness concerns are not yet ruled out of Saturday’s trip to Burnley.
The Gunners boss was asked about the status of Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Emile Smith Rowe, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Jorginho, with all five players not at full fitness.
He was not quite ready to confirm whether any of the quintet will be playing at Turf Moor, but did say that they all could make it.
‘The update is that some of them have been progressing better than others,’ said Arteta on Friday morning. ‘We have a training session again today, some of them have done a few bits this week. I’m positive that hopefully we’re going to get a few back for tomorrow.’
Asked if any are ruled out, Arteta confirmed that they are not, while also noting that Thomas Partey is getting close to a return from a long-term injury that has kept him out since October.
‘At the moment no,’ he said. ‘There’s no big set-backs on any of those injuries and Thomas Partey is progressing really well. I don’t want to say too much but he’s on the field already.’
Arsenal have a busy period ahead as they return to Champions League action next week, travelling to Porto on Wednesday.
Mikel Arteta is aiming to make it five wins on the spin on Saturday (Picture: Getty Images)
Arteta admits he would like to rotate his squad at times, but injury concerns have meant that it has been impossible recently.
‘We have to go game by game because at the moment in some positions in the last few weeks we didn’t really have a choice,’ he said. ‘We had to play them, we didn’t have any other players to do so.’
Fabio Vieira is another player who has been out with injury and while he will not feature this weekend, he could be available for the Porto game, with Arteta saying: ‘There is a chance, yes.’
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