Arsenal’s injury woes have finally eased significantly ahead of a pivotal run of fixtures across all competitions.
The Gunners’ frustrating start to the season came against the backdrop of constant fitness woes, with Mikel Arteta’s side going four Premier League matches without a win to drop to fourth and nine points adrift of early leaders Liverpool before the November international break.
However, serious Ben White setback aside, things were looking much brighter for Saturday’s visit of Nottingham Forest as Arteta made five changes from the draw at Chelsea, with Bukayo Saka, Riccardo Calafiori and Leandro Trossard all passed fit to start after knocks, captain Martin Odegaard making an impressive second start after his ankle injury and Declan Rice fit enough to be on the bench.
Arsenal looked to get through their dominant 3-0 win over Forest without any further setbacks, with Jorginho’s half-time substitution seeming to be caused by his yellow card rather than any fitness blow.
The key fixtures come thick and fast now for the Gunners, with Sporting Lisbon up next in the Champions League on Tuesday night ahead of games against West Ham, Manchester United, Fulham, Monaco, Everton and a double-header against Crystal Palace that includes a Carabao Cup quarter-final showdown. With that in mind, here is all the latest Arsenal injury news and return dates.
Ben White
White is the exception to Arsenal’s vastly improved injury picture, with the versatile defender having dealt with multiple issues over several weeks leading into the last international break, when the decision was made to send him for a knee procedure.
It was initially unclear exactly how much time White would miss, before Arteta confirmed before the win over Forest that he was facing months on the sidelines.
"Ben White is going to be out for months, unfortunately," he said. "It's been different kinds of struggles, never the same thing.
"We had to make a decision, it hasn't been improving in the last few weeks. We know Ben is going to push every boundary, but it got to a point where we had to protect the player.
"We decided to do surgery, he agreed with that and that's going to keep him out for a few months.
"We have to see how he reacts post-surgery, I don't expect it to be half a year but I can't say exactly how long it will be."
Potential return date: Early 2025
Takehiro Tomiyasu
White’s absence is compounded by that of Takehiro Tomiyasu, who missed the first couple of months of the season with a knee injury suffered over the summer and made a brief return off the bench against Southampton in early October before suffering another setback that has kept him sidelined ever since.
There is still no timeline for the Japan defender’s potential return, with Arteta revealing before the win over Forest that he was now set for a change of scenery in a bid to try and aid his recovery.
“Tomiyasu is going to be out as well for a bit,” Arteta said. “He’s going to be away now for a few weeks for him to continue with his training and to change his environment a little bit because it’s been really tough for him as you can imagine.
“He’s one of the guys where the only thing he wants to do is to work 24 hours to get better and he feels terrible when he’s not fit, so it’s a real shame. We’re going to give him the best opportunity to try and unlock something to help him to have him back as quickly as possible, but I think we need to be patient.”
Potential return date: Unknown
Kieran Tierney
A third Arsenal full-back who has been sidelined, Kieran Tierney was out after being stretchered off with a serious hamstring injury during Scotland’s game against Switzerland at Euro 2024 in June.
The former Celtic defender has been slowly stepping up his return to fitness of late, with Arteta confirming last week that Tierney had trained a couple of times at London Colney but was not yet ready to be considered for a return to action.
“Kieran - not yet,” the Spaniard said. “He had a couple of sessions with the team but is not ready yet to be with the team.”
However, the Arsenal boss confirmed on Monday that Tierney was now available for selection and in the squad to face Sporting Lisbon.
Potential return date: Tuesday November 26, vs Sporting Lisbon
