Arsenal will continue to be without defender William Saliba for this weekend's Premier League clash with West Ham United, Mikel Arteta has confirmed.
The Frenchman has missed the last three games after suffering a back injury in the Europa League exit to Sporting CP several weeks ago. In the three games in his absence, the Gunners have failed to keep a single clean sheet against Crystal Palace, Leeds and Liverpool.
After reports that the 22-year-old was nowhere to be seen in Tuesday's open training session, Arteta confirmed on Friday that Saliba remains unavailable for selection. "William [Saliba] is still not available," the Gunners boss said.
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"He's progressing well and we're hopeful that we'll have him available in the next few weeks. We'll have to see." Arteta continued. "He's not far off starting to do that [back on grass]. Obviously we need to be cautious because of the injury but he's evolving well."
Despite the blow of Saliba's return, Arteta was on hand to provide a positive update on Eddie Nketiah. The striker has missed the last seven games due to an ankle injury, however he was part of the training session on Monday.
Now, Arteta has confirmed that the Hale Ender is back and ready to return to action at the London Stadium on Sunday. "Eddie is back. He's fully fit now and he's back," the Spaniard said.
Nketiah's return means Arsenal come into the final eight games of the season without only three senior players. Saliba joins Mohamed Elneny and Takehiro Tomiyaus as the players unavailable.
A club statement in January confirmed that Elneny will be out for an extended period of time while Tomiyasu was forced to undergo knee surgery after being substituted off inside the first 10 minutes against Sporting CP.
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