Arsenal have set optimistic return dates for their injured forwards Gabriel Martinelli and Viktor Gyokeres.
The pair are certain to miss tonight’s Champions League game against Slavia Prague and appear unlikely to feature against Sunderland this weekend.
Gyokeres was withdrawn at half-time against Burnley last weekend with what was described as a ‘muscular’ injury.
Speaking ahead of this evening’s game, Mikel Arteta confirmed further tests would be required before Arsenal are able to confirm the extent of the problem.
‘He’s definitely not available,’ said the Arsenal manager. ‘He hasn’t trained today, and we need to do some more tests and scans in the next few days to understand the extent of the injury, but for this game he’s not available.
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‘I am concerned because he hasn’t had many muscular issues and he had to leave the pitch. He was feeling something and that’s obviously never a good sign.
‘Especially for a player that is very, very explosive, so we are digging in a little bit more to understand where we are in terms of the injury and we will announce it when we know more.’
Martinelli, meanwhile, has missed the last two games and hasn’t been selected for the Brazil squad ahead of their upcoming fixtures against Tunisia and Senegal.
According to The Athletic, are hope both players will recover over the course of the international break and be ready in time to be in contention for the north London derby on November 23.
By then Arteta could also be able to call upon skipper Martin Odegaard, as well as Noni Madueke and Kai Havertz who have both missed a significant chunk of the campaign to date.
Arsenal’s immediate focus will centre on extending their 100% record in Europe so far this term, but Arteta is taking little for granted despite his side’s astonishing run of clean sheets.
‘Yes, of course, it’s a huge platform to win games and the difficulty of that in this competition and when you’re playing away, even more so,’ he said.
‘Tomorrow, we know we’re going to face a really good challenge here and, in the team as well, they are very intense, very direct, very vertical and we’re going to have to be really good to achieve what we want.’
Asked whether he is likely to rotate given the number of injuries he has been forced to contend with, Arteta added: ‘Yes, that’s a situation that we’ve been dealing with for a few weeks and trying to have the right freshness, the right cohesion within the team.
‘The team has been competing really well in all different competitions and tomorrow we know that we have a really tough match here.
‘They are unbeaten here at home all season. It’s a team that are very used to playing together; they have a very clear philosophy, they create a massive atmosphere as well, so we know it’s going to be a really tough match.’