Mikel Arteta offers updated Bukayo Saka & Gabriel Martinelli return dates

Mikel Arteta has reiterated that Arsenal wingers Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli are highly likely to return after the March international break, rather than before.

A blunted Arsenal attack that is also missing Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus has failed to find the net in successive Premier League games against West Ham United and Nottingham Forest.

Saka is yet to play in 2025 after undergoing surgery on a torn hamstring injury in December, with Martinelli ruled out with a less serious issue more recently. The expectation for a while has been that the international break at the end of next month, with Arsenal to return to playing in April, would be the opportunity for the wide pair to get back on the pitch.

Asked after Wednesday night's Forest stalemate if there was a chance of Saka and Martinelli before the international break, Arteta's response was clear: "I don't think so, no."

When it came to discussing their availability once club football resumes after the break, Arteta didn't offer any guarantees but still appears hopeful overall.

"Let's see how they evolve in the next few weeks to make the right steps. Then, after that... they've been out for a long, long time, so we're going to have to integrate them as well, probably gradually. So they’re evolving well, but they’re still a bit far," the boss explained.

"We have a meeting [on Thursday] to discuss where they are, especially Gabi. Probably a chance before Bukayo to come in, but how soon that is, we’ll have to see how it goes in the next week or ten days."

Arteta also offered updates on Ethan Nwaneri and Riccardo Calafiori, both of whom were withdrawn against Forest, with little to worry about overall.

Nwaneri was "cramping from minute 45, so we stretched him as much as we possibly could but we cannot lose the player and he was really fatigued."

Meanwhile, Calafiori not returning for the second half was tactical, rather than injury-related: "I took him [off] because he got a yellow in the second minute. He had one or two situations defending [Callum] Hudson-Odoi and we couldn't play again with ten men."

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