William Saliba was injured against Sporting Lisbon

WHEN the players return from an international break, Mikel Arteta will hope his Arsenal team is still more or less in one piece.

He is already sweating on the fitness of William Saliba, who will be desperately needed back in the Gunners rearguard if they are going to maintain a title charge with away matches at Liverpool, Newcastle United and Manchester City still to come and looking like an ominous set of hurdles in the final furlongs.

The boss will have to have his fingers tightly crossed that there are no more injuries to report among the many of his charges who have been called to represent their countries in various corners of Europe and beyond. It is still a sore point that Gabriel Jesus, the big summer signing from City, has missed so much of the season with an injury picked up playing for Brazil in a rather meaningless third group game in Qatar.

Unfortunately, there has already been some disastrous news from the physio room, however.

It’s official: Versatile defender Takehiro Tomiyasu will not play again for Arsenal this season. He joins Mohammed Elneny on the long-term crocked list after struggling to come back from a knee injury.

The full back may not always be a first choice but he has racked up more than 30 appearances this season, and is often a go-to man for Arteta later on in matches, when the manager is worried about leading an advantage slip.

The 24-year-old was hurt in last Thursday’s Europa League match against Sporting Lisbon at the Emirates, which resulted in penalty shootout elimination for the Gunners.

Japan international Takehiro Tomiyasu is out for the season [Fars Media Corporation]

“Everyone at the club will now be working hard with Tomi, so he can join pre-season training ahead of next season,” the club said in a statement today (Tuesday).

Saliba and the injured forward Eddie Nketiah are expected to recover to feature again in the run-in.