Mikel Arteta says Jurrien Timber missed Arsenal’s pre-season win over Bayer Leverkusen because of an injury to his foot.
The Dutch defender was absent for almost the entirety of last season after suffering an ACL injury in the first game of the campaign and has had a disrupted pre-season so far.
New addition Riccardo Calafiori also missed out again, with Arteta insisting he needs time to get up to speed, but looks set to play a part in his new side’s final pre-season friendly against Lyon on Sunday.
“With Jurrien he had a little discomfort in his foot the last few days,” Arteta said.
“After the amount of time he has been out, we did not want to take any risks with him.
“With regards to Riccardo, so much has happened to him in one week. He has come into a new environment, a completely different methodology, different training and we are managing him.
“We want to do it slowly, to get him in the best possible way. Hopefully on Sunday he will be available to play some minutes.”
Arteta is also hoping England duo Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice will be ready for the start of the season after featuring in the second-half of the 4-1 win over Leverkusen as goals from Oleksandr Zinchenko, Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz secured victory.
Arteta said: “The season starts in nine or 10 days so they have to be ready. These are the demands they have right now.
“We really look after them when they are with us, when we have the ability to give them days off we do. We gave them days off before the start of the Euros and we have given them the rest that they needed.”
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