Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Ben White will miss Arsenal’s game against Manchester City on Saturday as he is still isolating, also revealing that Bukayo Saka is a doubt.
Arteta’s start to the season has been far from ideal with a host of key players struck down by coronavirus. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Willian have all missed games for this season, although they are all now back in contention.
However, White - who tested positive after the initial outbreak - is not so fortunate. After sitting out of Arsenal’s defeat to Chelsea last weekend, Arteta also ruled the defender out for the City game.
“From Covid we still have Ben out and Alex Runarsson who has been out, and the rest of the players that are missing, hopefully today because we’re going to be tested, are only injuries. They’re longer term injuries and that’s why we don’t have them back yet,” he said, as quoted by the club’s website.
He added: “[White is] asymptomatic. He's been feeling good and as quick as we can, we're going to bring him back to training and start to play games with us again.”
Arsenal are without a Premier League point this season following back-to-back defeats to Brentford and Chelsea. They were handed a boost in midweek, though, easing to a 6-0 victory over a much-rotated West Brom side.
During that encounter Saka picked up a knock and Arteta admitted that he did not know whether that would rule him out of the City game.
“He was limping after the match and we will see today how that reacts, but he had a knock, yeah,” he said.
The West Brom victory saw Martin Odegaard make his second debut for the club after joining permanently following a loan spell last season. He performed well and Arteta is hopeful that he will be ready for Saturday’s fixture.
“He’s a really fit boy. He had a good pre-season with Madrid and he’s played enough minutes and let’s see how he recovers from yesterday’s match and how the others are, and then we can decide whether he’s ready to start.”
Source : 90min