Arsenal defender out for ‘months’; Arteta provides Rice, Saka injury updates; another Tomiyasu blow

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed that key defender Benjamin White will miss “a few months” after undergoing surgery.

It’s fourth versus fifth in the Premier League on Saturday when Arsenal welcome Nottingham Forest to the Emirates.

The Gunners have dealt with several injuries this season and Arteta had positive news regarding Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice, who both missed England duty through injury.

“Bukayo and Declan have had their first partial sessions back today – they did very well,” Arteta told a pre-match press conference on Friday.

The Spaniard added that summer signing Riccardo Calafiori will be in the squad, while Takehiro Tomiyasu remains out and fan favourite Kieran Tierney – who has not played for Arsenal since a 14-minute cameo in the 2023 Community Shield – has returned to training but is not match fit.

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“Riccardo Calafiori has trained, his rehab has gone really well,” Arteta added. “This week he trained on the pitch, he trained with us today – and he will be back in the squad.

“Kieran is not ready. He had a couple of sessions with the team, but he’s not ready to be with them.

“Tomiyasu is going to be a little while yet.”

There was, however, more bad news on the injury front, with Arteta confirming that important right-back White will be out for “months” after making the tough decision to undergo surgery during the international break.

“Ben White is going to be out for months, unfortunately,” the Gunners manager told reporters. “It’s been different kinds of struggles, never the same thing.

“We had to make a decision, it hasn’t been improving in the last few weeks.

“We know Ben is going to push every boundary, but it got to a point where we had to protect the player. We decided to do surgery, he agreed with that and that’s going to keep him out for a few months.

“We have to see how he reacts post-surgery, I don’t expect it to be half a year but I can’t say exactly how long it will be.”

Meanwhile, Forest head coach Nuno Espirito Santo was happy to use the international break to help treat his injured players.

He told a press conference on Friday: “We took advantage of the international break to try to manage some players who were struggling and Elliot [Anderson] was one of them. Let’s see how he is but for now, we still have to assess him.

“We are just managing some players and some situations. As we mentioned before, we took the chance of this international break to recover some players. Let’s wait and see if they improve.”

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