Arsenal's final training session ahead of Sunday's Premier League meeting with Leicester City is in the books.
Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff have been putting Gunners players through their paces at London Colney thus completing preparations for the big game at the Emirates Stadium.
From the images, it would appear that Takehiro Tomiyasu won't be available for selection once again he was not spotted alongside his Arsenal teammates during the session following an update on the calf injury that has disrupted his 2022.
"Tomiyasu we're still assessing him because we're taking some time to try to protect him and get him in the best and safest possible way," Arteta revealed in his pre-match press conference.
Of late when any Arsenal first-team player has not been involved in the final training session before a match, it's usually a clear indication they won't feature.
Two recent examples are Tomiyasu and Emile Smith Rowe ahead of the 2-1 win over Wolves at the end of February as well as last weekend's 3-2 victory at Watford.
Neither player was spotted and ended up sitting out those respective games, although Arteta's side didn't miss them too much as their top-four charge remained on track.
As a result, the Japan international’s return for the north London outfit looks to have been delayed and it remains to be seen if he will be available for selection against Liverpool or Aston Villa next week.
In his absence, Arteta can continue a recent trend by naming an academy player in the matchday squad against Leicester.
Given Cedric Soares has trained, it’s likely he will continue at right-back unless Benjamin White takes up that role with Rob Holding coming into partner Gabriel Magalhaes in central defence.
But in order to make up a 20-man matchday Premier League squad, Tomiyasu's potential unavailability would leave Arsenal short by one.
Recently, Zak Swanson has been called up to provide defensive cover and he is in line to be named on the bench on Sunday having been involved in Saturday's training session.
Miguel Azeez and Salah-Eddine were the other academy starlets called up to the session, with the former seen to be battling with possession with Thomas Partey.
Furthermore, Alexandre Lacazette, Kieran Tierney, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli were also spotted in the session which is likely to hand Arteta the luxury of naming an unchanged side against the Foxes.
Although with Smith Rowe back in training after missing the last two games, it does leave the Arsenal manager with somewhat of a selection dilemma.
