Mikel Arteta has issued an update on the fitness of our first-team squad as we prepare to face Chelsea in the first leg of our Carabao Cup semi-final on Wednesday, January 14.
The boss was first asked about defensive duo Piero Hincapie and Riccardo Calafiori who both missed our 4-1 win over Portsmouth in the FA Cup.
“Those two are not available yet.” Mikel said at the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Tuesday.
While he couldn’t provide a timeline for Piero’s recovery, there was an update on our Italian defender.
“It’s a muscle injury. He’s progressing, but we don’t know. I think it will matter for a few weeks probably, but we don’t know exactly when.”
As well as missing Piero and Riccardo, the boss confirmed that William Saliba and Leandro Trossard are both doubts after missing our FA Cup win at the weekend.
Mikel also provided an update on Max Dowman and Cristhian Mosquera, who have both been recovering from long-term injuries.
“(Max) is very similar to Mosquera. Very similar injuries, very similar time frames.
“Both evolving really well, but they’re not training yet, so they’re still a few weeks away.”
While we’ll be missing a host of first-team players for Wednesday’s tie, we may have former Chelsea striker Kai Havertz available after he made his long-awaited return last time out against Pompey.
“Obviously we missed him a lot,” Mikel said on the German, “A year is a long time in football, but as you said, the way he’s come back, he looks really fit, really confident.
“He’s such an intelligent player that straight away, he is someone that connects with the players really naturally.
“We have to manage his minutes now, but he had a good block of 20-25 minutes the other day. He trained really well again today, it’s now a case of building his robustness and make sure that he’s available for every game.”
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Every word from Mikel Arteta’s pre-Chelsea presser
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