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Arsenal have been handed a surprisingly positive injury update as Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard participated in an open training session alongside long-term absentee Kai Havertz. This offers a rare boost for Mikel Arteta’s side, who have battled numerous fitness issues throughout the season.
The Gunners have been plagued by injury concerns this campaign. Club captain Martin Odegaard missed two months with a twisted ankle after starting the first three league games. Key attacker Bukayo Saka was sidelined for three months following Christmas, during which time he was joined in the treatment room by Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, and Havertz.
German forward Havertz was initially expected to miss the remainder of the season after suffering a hamstring tear while blocking a shot. However, Arteta recently hinted at a potential early return. As reported by The Athletic, Havertz has now taken a significant step towards recovery by participating in full first-team training.
Adding to the positive news, both Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard were also present during the session. England international Rice missed Arsenal’s trip to Anfield against Liverpool last Sunday due to an unspecified injury that Arteta described as “not looking good.” Trossard was another fitness concern, but he was seen on the training pitches at London Colney ahead of Arsenal’s crucial final home game of the season against Newcastle United on Sunday.
The Magpies currently sit just two points behind the Gunners in third place with two league matches remaining. Avoiding defeat against Newcastle – who have already defeated Arsenal three times this season without conceding – would put Arteta’s side in a strong position to secure second place ahead of their final game against bottom-of-the-table Southampton.
Following last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool, when questioned about the reasons behind Arsenal’s faltering Premier League title challenge, Arteta highlighted the significant impact of injuries. “It’s a lot of factors to that,” the Spanish manager noted.
“We knew from the beginning of the decision that our squad was super short and being super short we had some players that had a high probability of getting injured, because that’s what they had in the last few seasons. So we knew that and we cannot do anything about it.
“That’s a big thing to win trophies, you know, and [Liverpool] did that extremely well. They managed to maintain that consistency, that level of players, a system, a coach, a stadium that has created again, and consistently, an incredible atmosphere for them.
“So you need a lot of ingredients or you don’t win the Premier League. That’s the difficulty of it, and it’s true that this season we never found that consistently because of the issues that we had.”