Mikel Arteta has extinguished any injury fears over Takehiro Tomiyasu after Arsenal's Champions League thrashing of Lens.
The versatile Japanese defender started Wednesday night's one-sided Group B clash at the Emirates Stadium, impressing hugely once again with two excellent assists for Gabriel Martinelli and captain Martin Odegaard.
Tomiyasu was a constant threat down Arsenal's right flank as the rampant hosts went 4-0 up inside just 27 minutes and then led by five at the break, eventually winning 6-0 to secure their place in the last-16 as group winners.
However, Tomiyasu was substituted at half-time against Lens along with fellow full-back Oleksandr Zinchenko, with Arteta sending on the fit-again Ben White and Jakub Kiwior for the second period in north London.
Tomiyasu would be a key miss for Arsenal after his recent good form that saw the 25-year-old briefly keep Zinchenko on the bench and also earn the club's player of the month honours for October, but Arteta has since confirmed that those half-time defensive changes were simply to give his players a rest with the game already won and a busy run of fixtures ahead.
"I think he was excellent," Arteta said of Tomiyasu. "He's played a lot of minutes and we have a really congested period.
"We are really short at the back at the moment and we had to use the squad and make some changes, give some rest and give some minutes to all the players."
