Arteta delivers positive injury updates ahead of Bayern and Chelsea | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta says he is “confident” Martin Odegaard will return to the matchday squad for Wednesday night’s Champions League meeting with Bayern Munich, while Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz could be back for Chelsea.

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It has already been a stop-start campaign for Odegaard, who has missed 12 games through a combination of this knee injury and two separate shoulder problems, but the captain took part in full training on Tuesday during the club’s open session at London Colney, his first involvement with the group since damaging his MCL against West Ham in October.

He is now “pressing” to be involved against Bayern, and Arteta underlined that optimism in his pre-match press conference. “Yeah they are [available] and we’re going to have a meeting now to decide on Martin,” Arteta said when asked about the availability of Odegaard, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli. “We are confident he [Odegaard] can be in the squad.”

Odegaard was in the stands for Sunday’s 4–1 derby win over Tottenham, but was not deemed ready for the bench. His return is the most significant boost Arsenal have had in weeks, with the side unbeaten and yet to concede in the Champions League league phase.

There was further good news in defence, where Piero Hincapié and Riccardo Calafiori both trained on Tuesday after being forced off early against Spurs. Both are expected to be available. Youth defender Marli Salmon also trained, providing extra cover should Arteta need it.

Gabriel Jesus continues to work through his rehab programme and is expected to feature in behind-closed-doors friendlies before being cleared for competitive minutes. “Yeah, he’s quite close to be fair and it’s earlier than expected,” Arteta said. “In the next few days he’ll have another chance with a game that we’re going to organise for him.”

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Arsenal look set to play a private match against a Manchester United XI on Thursday, with the intention of providing minutes for returning first-team players, most importantly the Brazilian.

The status of Viktor Gyökeres is also a little clearer, too. The striker has been out since scoring in the 2–0 win at Burnley on 1 November, and Tuesday’s session provided no indication of a return for Bayern. If he misses the game against the Germans, it will be his fourth game out.

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Ahead of the match, however, Arteta said: “Really good both of them, in the next few days they will have scans to see if we can push them for the weekend,” when asked about Gyökeres and Kai Havertz, who also remains sidelined after a small setback. Havertz was expected to be out until the end of next month.

Madueke made his first appearance since September when he came off the bench in Sunday’s derby win, while Martinelli returned as an unused substitute and trained fully on Tuesday.

Both will be available on Wednesday night.

Gabriel is still sidelined with a thigh injury.