Mikel Arteta says Arsenal defender William Saliba is not recovering as well as he had hoped from the back injury which has sidelined him for the past four Premier League games.
Saliba was forced off in Arsenal’s Europa League exit to Sporting CP last month and his spell on the sidelines has coincided with a dip in form for the Gunners over the last two games, drawing against both Liverpool and West Ham.
Arteta last week said Saliba was “progressing well” in his recovery and that he hoped the Frenchman would be able to return in the coming weeks.
But now the Arsenal boss has refused to confirm whether he would be fit before the end of the season.
“With William, we are still to wait a little bit more. He’s not progressing as quickly as we hoped,” he said.
“We have to be delicate and we want to be very certain when we push him that he’s ready to absorb the load and the risk that we would take. At the moment, that’s not possible.”
And pressed on whether he could miss the rest of the season, Arteta continued: “I don’t know, next week we will have more certainty.
“There is some evolution. He is doing more activity but he’s not there yet to start to throw him on the pitch at the level that the session demands to compete in this league.”
Oleksandr Zinchenko also looks likely to miss out against Southampton on Friday having been absent from the clash with West Ham.
The full-back has been nursing a muscle issue and Arteta says he is not yet ready to play.
“We will see that one [Zinchenko] as well, it’s not certain,” he confirmed. “It’s a muscular injury and he needs some time to heal and we’re not there yet.”
