Arsenal handed triple injury boost ahead of decisive Newcastle game | OneFootball

Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard were surprisingly involved in an open Arsenal training session alongside long-term absentee Kai Havertz in a rare injury boost for Mikel Arteta's side.

The Gunners have been plagued by fitness concerns all season. Club captain Martin Odegaard started the first three league games before sitting out two months with a twisted ankle. The team's attacking fulcrum Bukayo Saka was out for three months after Christmas, a period when he was joined in a crowded treatment room by Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Havertz.

The German forward was expected to be sidelined for the remainder of the campaign after he tore his hamstring by innocuously blocking a shot, before Arteta teased an early return without offering any definitive dates. Havertz has taken one step closer to getting back on a Premier League pitch with his involvement in full first-team training, as reported by The Athletic.

Encouragingly, Rice was also present for the session. The England international missed Arsenal's trip to Liverpool's Anfield last Sunday with an undefined injury which Arteta admitted "does not look". Leandro Trossard was another fitness concern who appeared on the pitches of London Colney ahead of Arsenal's final home game of the season against Newcastle United on Sunday.

The Magpies are just two points behind the Gunners in third place with a pair of league matches remaining. If Arteta's side can avoid defeat against Newcastle - who have already beaten Arsenal three times this season without conceding a goal - they will be in a strong position to finish second ahead of a season-ender against rock-bottom Southampton.

When asked after last weekend's 2-2 draw with Liverpool what went wrong in Arsenal's Premier League title challenge, Arteta couldn't help but bring up the injury issues. "It's a lot of factors to that," the Spanish boss noted.

"We knew from the beginning of the decision that our squad was super short and being super short we had some players that had a high probability of getting injured, because that's what they had in the last few seasons. So we knew that and we cannot do anything about it.

"That's a big thing to win trophies, you know, and [Liverpool] did that extremely well. They managed to maintain that consistency, that level of players, a system, a coach, a stadium that has created again, and consistently, an incredible atmosphere for them.

"So you need a lot of ingredients or you don't win the Premier League. That's the difficulty of it, and it's true that this season we never found that consistently because of the issues that we had."