Arsenal have received positive news on Kieran Tierney's fitness ahead of the North London Derby with Tottenham on Saturday and remain hopeful that Thomas Partey, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Takehiro Tomiyasu could all be available for the game football.london understands.
Zinchenko did not join with Ukraine at all after sustaining a calf problem ahead of the 3-0 win over Brentford, while Tierney was forced to withdraw from the Scotland camp over the international break after being taken off in their UEFA Nations League victory over the Republic of Ireland, and Tomiyasu also returned to the Gunners ahead of schedule despite playing the full 90 in Japan's 2-0 friendly win over the USA.
Partey on the other hand did not manage a minute for Ghana and was forced to leave national team duty early after picking up a knee injury ahead of their clash with Brazil. Speaking after that news though manager Otto Addo admitted this had been as more of a precautionary measure. “Hopefully Thomas will be healthy very, very soon,” he said. “We didn’t want to take that risk in a friendly game to play him against Brazil, but surely playing a player like him against a squad like Brazil would have been helpful.”
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Tierney is set to be available for Saturday lunchtime's clash with Spurs. The Scot was brought home early as a precautionary measure after suffering a concussion in the match with Ireland, but should recover in time for the derby.
Partey, Zinchenko and Tomiyasu meanwhile are all back in north London and being assessed ahead of the weekend. The Gunners will continue to monitor them over the coming days and football.london understands that they remain hopeful that all three could be involved for Tottenham.
There is also considerable hope that Martin Odegaard should be fit to play the derby. The Arsenal captain missed the 3-0 win over Brentford ahead of the international break with a calf problem but played in both of Norway's Nations League fixtures against Slovenia and Serbia.
Reiss Nelson is back training with the first team too and could be involved in the matchday squad on Saturday. Mohamed Elneny is set to definitely miss the game however, as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury sustained in August that Mikel Arteta described as "long term."
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