Mikel Arteta and Arsenal’s medical staff are meeting on Thursday as they seek to define the timelines of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli’s return from injuries.
Martinelli and Saka are currently both on the sidelines due to hamstring injuries, while Arsenal are also without Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz.
Jesus and Havertz are set to miss the rest of the season and Arteta confirmed on Wednesday night that Martinelli and Saka are not due back before the March international break.
The pair would therefore miss both legs of Arsenal’s Champions League last-16 tie with PSV Eindhoven and Premier League games against Chelsea and Manchester United.
Arteta hopes Martinelli and Saka can return after the international break when Arsenal host Fulham on April 1.
The Gunners are not in the FA Cup, meaning they have a clear weekend when players return from international duty before taking on Fulham midweek.
“Let’s see how they evolve in the next few weeks to make the right steps and then after that, they’ve been out for a long, long time, so we’re going to have to integrate them as well gradually,” said Arteta. “They are evolving well but they’re still a bit far.
“We have a meeting to discuss where they are, especially Gabi, who probably has a chance before Bukayo to come in, but how soon that is, we’ll have to see how it evolves in the next week or 10 days.”
Without the attacking quartet of Havertz, Jesus, Martinelli and Saka, the Gunners toiled against Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.
Arsenal failed to score for the second Premier League game in a row and, after a 0-0 draw at the City Ground, are now 13 points off Premier League leaders Liverpool.
“It’s about what we can do, and it was like this a week ago, two weeks before, three months ago,” said Arteta.
“That’s the only thing that we can control if we want to have a reach chance to do anything. Today we dropped two points, which is very painful again and we have to step up – we have the Champions League, we have a beautiful competition in front of us and we have to ready for Tuesday.”
