Nwaneri, Calafiori, Saliba, Saka – Arsenal team news latest vs Dinamo Zagreb
Hello everyone. I’ve just got back from spending the afternoon at the Arsenal training centre where I watched some of today’s training session ahead of tomorrow night’s Champions League clash with Dinamo Zagreb at the Emirates.
And there was some good news, with Ethan Nwaneri and Riccardo Calafiori both returning from their recent injury lay-offs to take part in the session. Mikel Arteta later confirmed that both would be in the squad for Wednesday night’s game.
There was no sign of Ben White or Takehiro Tomiyasu, however, who both remained absent. While William Saliba was also not involved due to the hamstring injury that saw him miss Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Aston Villa.
Arteta did deliver a fairly positive update about Saliba’s fitness in his press conference this afternoon, however, stating that he was confident the centre-back would be fit in time for the Manchester City game on February 2nd.
Watch my report from today’s training session and press conference
Here is what Arteta had to say in his press conference when asked about the latest Arsenal team news.
On Ethan Nwaneri and Riccardo Calafiori returning to training
“It’s very positive news, we’ve missed them for a few weeks and they returned today for training so they will be available for the game.”
on having Nwaneri back:
“Yes it was a big setback because he was getting some consistency and more minutes. We made him play in a different position and he was doing really well, then suddenly this happens. It’s understandable with the load as well, it goes through the roof immediately and this is what we have to manage.”
on William Saliba’s condition:
“He is evolving well, the last few days he was feeling much better already but this game comes a little bit too early for him.”
on whether Saliba will be back for our Manchester City game:
“Yes, I hope so yes.”
on if Bukayo Saka will be back in March or before then:
“No, that’s not going to change. It’s within the process and the time that we had, that phase has gone now. He’s doing really well, he’s feeling better day by day, but we have to respect the healing process and then he has a lot of stages to go through in his rehab.”