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The latest Arsenal injury news and expected return dates ahead of their Premier League game against Fulham.
Arsenal will continue their quest to wrap up a Champions League place – and perhaps keep some pressure on leaders Liverpool – when they return to Premier League action against Fulham on Tuesday evening. But will Bukayo Saka be back, and what other injury problems will Mikel Arteta have to contend with?
Winger Saka has been out of action for over three months after undergoing surgery on a serious hamstring injury sustained back in December, but is closing in on a long-awaited return in time for the run-in – but while there are positive signs suggesting that Saka could feature against Fulham, he is still one of five first-team players who are out or doubtful for the midweek match at the Emirates.
We’ve got all the latest team news ahead of Tuesday’s game below, along with the injured players’ expected return dates when available.
Will Bukayo Saka play against Fulham?
Having been out of the game since the tail end of 2024, Saka returned to full training last Thursday, sharing a photo of himself giving a thumbs up at London Colney on his social media accounts as he celebrated getting back out on grass.
Arsenal head coach Arteta had recently told the media that Saka was “making good progress” as he worked towards full fitness and was “getting closer” to playing in April.
Arteta has now followed that up by saying that Saka is “ready to go” for the Fulham match. As it stands, it looks likely that he will play at least some role against Fulham, whether that’s as a starter or from the bench. Given the length of his lay-off, however, it is unlikely that he will play the full 90 minutes.
Either way, Arsenal fans will be delighted at the prospect of the return of the player who is still their second-highest goalscorer despite missing almost half of the season to date.
Riccardo Calafiori a casualty of the international break
Outside of Saka’s return, there was some bad news from the international break - defender Riccardo Calafiori, who has endured an injury-interrupted debut season with the Gunners, returned to North London prematurely after picking up a knee injury in Italy’s Nations League game against Germany.
The club have since assessed the injury but have yet to confirm its severity, with Italy manager Luciano Spalletti telling the press that he didn’t know how bad it was immediately, simply saying that Calafiori’s knee “feels strange, but he can’t answer the question of what he feels.”
That leaves the Italian’s status very much up in the air and he must be considered a major doubt for the match against Fulham this week pending an update from Arteta’s pre-match press conference.
If he is unavailable, then he will join Arsenal’s three long-term injury cases on the sidelines: Kai Havertz (hamstring), Gabriel Jesus (ACL) and Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee) are all out for the rest of the season. Havertz should be back for the start of the 2025/26 campaign, but Jesus and Tomiyasu are likely to be unavailable until the winter, with October and December likely respective return dates for the pair of stricken players.