Mikel Arteta has refused to confirm whether Gabriel Jesus has travelled with the Arsenal squad for Thursday's Europa League round of 16 first-leg clash against Sporting CP.
Last summer's £45million signing from Manchester City has not kicked a ball competitively since the beginning of December when he suffered medial ligament damage whilst in action for Brazil at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. And because the issue was worse than initially feared, an operation was required and subsequently completed successfully.
Three months and 14 games across all competitions later and Jesus' return is not far away. For example, this morning he took a huge step towards being back in action for Arsenal by participating in a full training session at London Colney before the squad flew out to Lisbon.
READ MORE: Arsenal press conference LIVE: Mikel Arteta on Gabriel Jesus recall, Bellerin and Sporting CP
Now, if the 25-year-old has joined the likes of Martin Odegaard, Fabio Vieira, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and William Saliba in traveling to Portugal then questions are to be raised with regard to being named in tomorrow evening's matchday squad for the clash against Sporting CP.
However, in classic Arteta fashion, he has opted to give very little away in terms of team news, instead choosing to keeps reporters and supporters alike guessing: "News on the squad will be tomorrow," the Spaniard said in the pre-match press conference. "We have brought a few players and you will see who is available."
It's believed that Kieran Tierney hasn't made the trip to Portugal having left the club's London Colney training ground about 45 minutes before the session began with football.london reporting the reason for his early withdrawal is because of illness instead of injury.
Meanwhile, Vieira - the £34m signing from Sporting CP's rivals Porto last summer - was spotted boarding the plane in footage released by Arsenal's official Twitter account on Wednesday afternoon and was due to speak to the media to mark his return to home soil but has been suffering with a sore throat.
Nevertheless, the playmaker will be fine for the last-16 clash and his knowledge of the opposition makes him even more useful to Arteta: "For sure, that’s the first thing that we did," the Spaniard admitted. "It’s great to have the knowledge of someone from the country."
But it remains to be seen what the situation is with Jesus. What might fill fans with some confidence for a potential return to the squad is the positive update from the past week.
Prior to the 4-0 win over Everton, the Brazilian delighted Gunners supporters on by taking to his social media platforms to effectively reveal how close he is to being available for selection once again. Uploading an image of him in full training gear at the club's London Colney base with the caption that read: "Step by step" accompanied by a muscle, prayer hands and football emoji.
Then at the weekend following the comeback win over Bournemouth, Jesus in his pre-match training gear nonetheless, was spotted doing a cool down with Arsenal's unused substitutes at the Emirates Stadium, thus providing another hint that a return to action is rather imminent.
With that said, Arteta appeared to suggest that he will reintegrate Jesus when the time is right: "We will try not to rush him back, we will try to make a fair assessment between what he needs and when is comfortable and as well giving the team a boost that it’s going to need in the next few weeks for sure," he told football.london.
"Everything is going well, he needs time as well to get himself that confidence and that physical state that is necessary to compete with a free mind and once he’s free to do that, we will throw him in."
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