Arsenal have been handed a fitness boost which should see their Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool go ahead.
The Gunners' clash with rivals Tottenham Hotspur was postponed on Sunday after Mikel Arteta 's side were unable to field enough first-team players for the North London Derby.
But Thursday's cup tie should go ahead, having managed a valiant goalless draw Anfield last week, despite Granit Xhaka 's early red card.
And while the midfielder is suspended for the return match and defender Cedric Soares is also set to be sidelined, manager Arteta should have plenty of options for the second leg at the Emirates thanks to some good news from the treatment room.
Martin Odegaard, who missed the first leg after a positive Covid-19 test, is set to be available after isolating, while the likes of Kieran Tierney, Calum Chambers, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Magalhaes are expected to be fit.
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Arteta will be thankful for the boost as the rules for the Carabao Cup, governed by the EFL rather than the Premier League, offer a wider scope to players who are deemed to be eligible for the competition, unlike the more stringent top-flight guidelines.
Arsenal's application to have Sunday's league match postponed was reluctantly accepted by the Premier League but drew widespread criticism due to the Gunners' January transfer business, with three senior players being loaned out this month.
Centre-back Pablo Mari is set to sign for Udinese until the end of the season on top of Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Folarin Balogun joining Roma and Middlesbrough respectively.
Tottenham boss Antonio Conte recently broke his silence on the controversial decision after a strongly-worded club statement.
"I think the club made a statement and they showed our disappointment at the decision. It was a strange decision," Conte said. "I must admit that this is the first time in my life that a league postponed games due to injuries. I'm very surprised.
"If the Premier League decides to postpone games for injuries it means maybe they have to try to make a [better] schedule. This is the first time in my life there's a league that postponed a game for injuries. This is very strange and I'm very surprised."
Spurs' statement read: "We are extremely surprised that this application has been approved.
"We ourselves were disqualified from the European Conference League after a significant number of COVID cases meant we needed to reschedule a fixture and our application to move our Leicester fixture was not approved - only for it to be subsequently postponed when Leicester applied.
"The original intention of the guidance was to deal with player availability directly affected by COVID cases, resulting in depleted squads that, when taken together with injuries, would result in the club being unable to field a team.
"We do not believe it was the intent to deal with player availability unrelated to COVID. We may now be seeing the unintended consequences of this rule.
"It is important to have clarity and consistency on the application of the rule. Yet again, fans have seen their plans disrupted at unacceptably short notice.
"We shall once again send food deliveries to the local food banks to avoid unacceptable waste. We are sincerely sorry for our fans - some of whom will have travelled great distances."
