by Arsenal’s injury problems have finally eased considerably ahead of a series of crucial matches in all competitions.
The Gunners’ frustrating start to the season has come against a backdrop of continued fitness issues, with Mikel Arteta’s side having gone four Premier League matches without a win to fall to fourth place and nine points behind early leaders Liverpool before the international break in November.
However, Ben White’s serious setback aside, things looked much brighter for visiting Nottingham Forest on Saturday as Arteta made five changes from the draw at Chelsea, with Bukayo Saka, Riccardo Calafiori and Leandro Trossard all past fit to start after knocks, with captain Martin Odegaard making an impressive second start after his ankle injury and Declan Rice fit enough to be on the bench.
Arsenal looked to overcome their dominant 3-0 win over Forest without another setback, with Jorginho’s half-time substitution appearing to be caused by his yellow card rather than a fitness blow.
The key meetings now come one after the other for the Gunners, with Sporting Lisbon next in the Champions League on Tuesday evening before matches against West Ham, Manchester United, Fulham, Monaco, Everton and a double against Crystal Palace which includes a clash in Carabao Cup quarter-final. With that in mind, here’s all the latest Arsenal injury news and return dates.
Ben White
White is the exception to Arsenal’s vastly improved injury picture, with the versatile defender having faced numerous problems for several weeks before the last international break, when the decision was made to send him for knee surgery.
It was initially unclear how long White would miss, before Arteta confirmed ahead of the win over Forest that he would be out for months.
“Ben White is unfortunately going to be out for months,” he said. “There were different types of struggles, never the same thing.
“We had to make a decision, the situation hasn’t improved in recent weeks. We know Ben is going to push all the limits, but we got to a point where we had to protect the player.
“We decided to do surgery, he was OK with that and it’s going to keep him out for a few months.
“We have to see how he reacts after the operation. I don’t expect it to take six months but I can’t say exactly how long it will take.”
Potential return date: early 2025
Takehiro Tomiyasu
White’s absence is compounded by that of Takehiro Tomiyasu, who missed the first two months of the season with a knee injury suffered over the summer and made a brief return to the bench against Southampton early October before suffering another setback that kept him sidelined. Since.
There is still no timetable for the Japanese defender’s potential return, with Arteta revealing before the win over Forest that he was now ready for a change of scenery in a bid to try and aid his recovery.
“Tomiyasu is also going to be out for a while,” Arteta said. “He’s going to be away now for a few weeks to continue his training and change his environment a bit because it’s been really hard for him as you can imagine.
“He’s one of those guys where the only thing he wants to do is work 24 hours to get better and he feels bad when he’s not in shape, so it’s a real shame. We’ll give him the best opportunity to try to unlock something to help him get it back as quickly as possible, but I think we need to be patient.
Potential return date: Unknown
Kieran Tierney
Currently absent Arsenal third-back Kieran Tierney has been sidelined since being stretchered off with a serious hamstring injury during Scotland’s match against Switzerland at Euro 2024 in June .
The former Celtic defender has slowly accelerated his return to fitness in recent times, with Arteta confirming last week that Tierney had trained several times at London Colney but was not yet ready to be considered for a back to action.
“Kieran, not yet,” said the Spaniard. “He has had a few sessions with the team but is not ready to be part of the team yet.”
Potential return date: December/January
