Arsenal defender Oleksandr Zinchenko remains a doubt for Friday night's game against Southampton.
The Ukraine international missed last weekend's 2-2 draw against West Ham United as a precaution over a groin issue, but despite taking part in a training session at London Colney on Wednesday, it has now been confirmed by Mikel Arteta that he may not be in contention to face the Saints.
"We will see with that one as well. It’s not certain," the Gunners boss revealed in his pre-match press conference on Thursday morning. "It’s a muscular injury and it needs some time to heal, and we are not there yet."
READ MORE: Arsenal news conference LIVE: Mikel Arteta on Saliba injury, Zinchenko return and Southampton
Furthermore, as expected, William Saliba won't feature against Southampton and there has been a rather worrying update with regard to the back injury sustained in the Europa League tie at home to Sporting CP last month that has subsequently seen him miss the previous four fixtures in succession.
"No big news. The picture hasn’t changed from last week," Arteta added. "Regarding William, we still have to wait a little bit more. He is not progressing as quick as we hoped. It’s a bit delicate and we want to be very certain when we push him that he is ready to absorb the load and the risk that we will take and at the moment that’s not possible to do.”
Of course, next week Wednesday sees Arsenal travel to the Etihad Stadium for what is being described as a Premier League title decider against Manchester City and football.london understands that Saliba is said to be willing to do whatever it takes to be available for selection.
However, following Arteta's latest comments on the Frenchman, the question as to whether the defender could miss the remainder of the season was posed and the Spaniard insisted that it's too early to suggest this could be the case.
"I don’t know, it’s a bit early to do [predictions]. Probably next week we are going to have more certainty," he said. There is some evolution, he is doing more activity, but he is not there yet to start to throw him on the pitch at the level that the sessions demand to compete in this League."
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