Arsenal’s pre-season ahead of the 2023/24 campaign is just around the corner and here is a positive injury update on four of Mikel Arteta’s first-team players…
Arsenal ideally want the majority of their transfer business done as early as possible in this summer transfer window as Mikel Arteta puts a lot of emphasise on how important a good pre-season can be. There will no doubt be new faces to integrate into the side, however it’s important the Gunners have most of their existing first-team available too so this injury update will be very good news for the Arsenal boss.
Oleksandr Zinchenko missed the last two games of the season through a minor calf injury, however it was never going to force him to miss preseason. It was just significant enough to make him miss the final few games of the season. If Arsenal were still leading the way in the Premier League then I suspect Zinchenko would have played through, that’s how minor it was, but with nothing on the line the club made the correct decision in not wanting to risk further injury.
The Ukrainian was one of Mikel Arteta’s most important players last season, so to have him fit and available from the start will be a huge boost for the Gunners.
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The same can be said for Gabriel Martinelli. His ankle injury was a little more significant than Zinchenko’s problem as he missed the last month of the season, however it was immediately reported that he’d be available for preseason.
Takehiro Tomiyasu and Mohamed Elneny’s injuries were two more serious ones that required surgery to repair serious knee injuries. The Japanese right-back tore his MCL in the game against Sporting at the Emirates, which requires around three months of rehab. Elneny’s was likely an ACL tear, which has around a six month recovery timeline. However the good news is both have been pictured at London Colney, working to get back to fitness, according to Football London.
There hasn’t been a recent update on William Saliba’s back injury. The sense is he will be back for pre-season, however that is yet to be confirmed by the club or the player. Mikel Arteta did say the Frenchman was making good progress towards the end of the season so hopefully that continues over the summer and he’s ready from the start for the 2022/23 campaign.
We all know how important Saliba is to Arsenal as we saw last season when he got injured so having him available from the start will be very important for Mikel Arteta.
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