Arsenal return to Premier League action this weekend against Leeds United. The game is the first of the final ten games of the season as the hunt for their first league title in nearly 20 years continues.
The international break came at possibly the worst possible time for the Gunners. Mikel Arteta's men have won their last six league games to see them stretch their lead over Manchester City to eight points.
Fortunately for Arsenal, they have avoided any serious injuries to their international stars throughout the break. However, there do still remain a number of injury concerns to contend with before facing Leeds.
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The fitness of midfielder Thomas Partey will be closely assessed at London Colney after he missed Ghana's 1-1 draw with Angola on Monday. "Thomas has some small issues, a small injury tissue and we felt it was too big of a risk to start him," Ghana boss Chris Hughton said when asked about Partey.
Partey has featured 30 times for Arteta's side this season and his absence in midfield will be a major loss. However, it remains unclear whether he will miss Saturday's game.
William Saliba also remains a doubt after picking up an injury in the Europa League tie with Sporting CP. "We hope Willy [Saliba] is going to be better news," Arteta said after Saliba was forced off. Again, we have to wait to tomorrow to get a better picture."
Saliba was forced to withdraw Didier Deschamps’ France squad for their fixtures with the Netherlands and Republic of Ireland. The seriousness of his injury remains to be unclear, with an update expected to come from Arteta this week.
There is hope that Eddie Nketiah may make a return to the Arsenal squad. The Hale Ender has been missing since the 4-0 win over March at the start of the month. "He's still in the boot. He's still a few weeks away and we need to be patient," Arteta said.
"It was a nasty injury and he has a big challenge ahead of him. Thank God it could have been worse. So he's not in a bad place."
The impressive forward has given his own update on social media too. Alongside an image on Instagram he wrote: "Grafting! *muscle emoji* #SoonBack." He then added another image to his Instagram story with the caption: "Rehab crew, monster mentality *brain emoji* *finger point emoji*."
In today's final round of international fixtures, there will be hope that Emile Smith Rowe continues his return to fitness in England Under-21s' friendly with Croatia. The winger started and scored for the Young Lions on Saturday in his first start of the season.
“I’m really desperate to be honest. The team are doing really well and it’s something I want to be a part off," he told reporters. "I’m working hard everyday. Like I said, coming away here and getting minutes that I really need is really good for me.”
Arsenal are only without two senior players. Takehiro Tomiyasu was ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering an unfortunate injury against Sporting. A statement from the club read: "Tomi has had successful surgery in London on Tuesday and will be ruled out for the remainder of this season. Everyone at the club will now be working hard with Tomi, so he can join pre-season training ahead of next season."
Elsewhere midfielder Mohamed Elneny is still out with a long-term knee injury.
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