William Saliba was a surprise absentee from an Arsenal announcement on Wednesday with the club explaining exactly why he was missing
William Saliba missed Arsenal's official squad photo
William Saliba missed Arsenal's official squad photo (Image: (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images))
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Arsenal have stated that William Saliba was absent for the 2026/27 squad photo because of a "medical appointment". The French defender has been spent the last few months recovering from a back injury that was aggravated during the World Cup, but is edging closer towards a return.
Caution is certainly being taken by Mikel Arteta and his staff, however, given Ezri Konsa and Cristhian Mosquera are more than capable at filling in. And the Gunners boss is also remaining coy on exactly when he could be back in the fold having recently returned to individual training.
He said: "Now it's over a week, I think, and he'll be managing that load, and how many repetitions and sessions in a row he can do, but he's building now his capacity to good standards, and let's see in the next few weeks we can start to introduce him with the team, and to see where we are to actually make his available."
On him being back after the November international break. Arteta replied: "I don't know, we're still talking about weeks, and when that happens it's very different whether he would play just before, or after that, because it's a very specific injury that he processes."
While Saliba will have spent a lot of time at the Sobha Realty Training Centre recently, it looks as though he was not there on Wednesday for the Gunners' official squad photo.
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At 2pm, the club uploaded that image to their social media channels and just moments later explained the reason for Saliba's absence. That read: "Due to a medical appointment, William Saliba was not available this afternoon."
Piero Hincapie and Martin Zubimendi joined Saliba and Christos Tzolis on Arsenal's injury list this past weekend after an unfortunate incident in a session at Emirates Stadium after the win over Leeds United.
Both players missed Tuesday's Champions League victory over Lille with Arteta offering a mixed update after the game.
He said: "Zubi is much, much better. Piero is improving, but as I said, he looks more significant. I think it will be a matter of weeks, I think. We don't know exactly how many.
"Zubi is improving. Zubi is improving, yes. We have to see the moment he goes on that pitch, how he deals with the pain and still some small feelings that he will have, basically."
Tzolis is also expected to miss a few weeks which has seen Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze utilised off the left. The latter was making just his third start of the season with none of those coming in the Premier League.
With the likes of Eze and Viktor Gyokeres coming into the team, Arteta was able to rest Riccardo Calafiori, Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka ahead of this weekend's Premier League clash against Nottingham Forest.