When asked about William Saliba's injury status before Friday's game against Southampton, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta sounded pessimistic.
The Frenchman left the second leg of the Gunners' Europa League round of 16 match against Sporting CP with a back injury and hasn't been seen since.
Saliba's potential return to play has never been given a timetable, but a photo of him riding a training cycle with Mohamed Elneny gave hope to Arsenal fans hoping to see him and Gabriel make a comeback.
However, Arteta stated that Saliba hasn't made the kind of improvement that would result in a return to the team in a news conference just four days after Arsenal squandered a two-goal lead at West Ham, allowing Manchester City to narrow the margin at the top of the Premier League table to four points.
No major news. Nothing has changed from the situation last week. We still have to wait a little while for William," the Spaniard added.
He is not improving as fast as we had thought. It's a little sensitive, and we want to be absolutely confident that he is prepared to take on the weight and the danger that we will assume before we push him. However, at the time, it is not possible to do that.
It's too early to make predictions, I suppose. We'll probably know more before the end of next week. Although there has been some improvement and he is now more active, he is still not ready to be used on the field at the level needed to compete in this league.
Takehiro Tomiyasu's injury has forced Rob Holding to fill in at center back; if the Japan international were healthy and available, Ben White might have moved over from right-back; however, Holding hasn't yet appeared completely at ease in a team that has occasionally played some excellent football.
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