Mikel Arteta has given updates on Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori after the pair missed yet another one of Arsenal’s pre-season friendlies.
The defenders were sat next to each other in attendance of the side’s 2-1 loss to Liverpool in Philadelphia on July 31 and were absent again for their 4-1 home win over Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday (August 7).
“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.”
Timber missed nine months of last season after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury on the opening day against Nottingham Forest. He made his first team return on the final day of 2023-24 at home to Everton, playing 21 minutes, and featured in their first two pre-season friendlies in the US.
“With regards to Riccardo, so much has happened to him in one week,” the Arsenal manager added. “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.”
Timber and Calafiori are not the only returning players who Arsenal will need to manage.
Those who reached at least the semi-finals of the 2024 European Championships (William Saliba, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, and David Raya) were given their first minutes of pre-season. Raya played the full 90 minutes against Leverkusen, while the three outfield players were all given 45 minutes.
Asked whether he is weary of burnout in regards to these players, 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.
“The best thing to do is to look in their faces and there is that spark in their eyes, to come back and say: ‘I don’t want to miss it because I know how hard it is going to be.’ That is the best sign – that the players want it.”
This will be the second European Championship Arteta has managed Arsenal after. The first was Euro 2020, which took place in 2021. That season, Saka featured in all 38 league games for Arsenal but was brought on off the bench in the first two.
Arsenal next play Olympique Lyonnais at Emirates Stadium on Sunday (August 11) before opening their Premier League campaign at home to Wolves on August 17.
(Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
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