Arsenal striker Bukayo Saka could be fit for Arsenal’s Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old missed Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday as manager Mikel Arteta did not want to take any chances with one of his key players.

Saka suffered a hamstring injury in England’s 2-1 loss to Greece in the Nations League on September 10 and missed all of team training on Monday.

Captain Martin Odegaard has missed eight games since suffering an ankle injury playing for Norway against Austria during the September international break. The Champions League game on Tuesday is still too early, but the 25-year-old is not far from returning.

Arteta said of the pair: “They are closer and they are both making really good progress. Martin is still not fit. Let’s see how Bukayo feels today and (after) the later training session.”

Despite positive comments from Arteta ahead of the Premier League game against Bournemouth, Saka was left out of Saturday night’s 2-0 defeat on the south coast.

Arteta explained that the winger “didn’t have the right feeling” and “there was no point in pushing him” ahead of a run of seven games in three weeks that includes the visit of Premier League leaders Liverpool Inter Milan and… include an away game at Chelsea.

Saka has started 145 of Arsenal’s 160 Premier League games over the last five seasons and has also been a key player for his country over that period.

Players’ union FIFPro lodged a complaint last week over the expanding football calendar, with midfielder Mikel Merino admitting the workload was an ongoing problem for players.

“It’s a difficult question because we are players, I love playing football. I don’t care how much I have to rest or not, when there is a ball at my feet I am happy,” he said. “But at the same time we are reaching a level where players are getting injured and the level of play is no longer at its highest level due to the breaks.

“I think it’s best for everyone to get to a point where we can keep playing and keep the spectacle going because if the players aren’t rested there will be injuries. Everyone wants to see the big names perform and pull off these amazing tricks with quality football. So we hope we can come to an agreement and get to a point where everyone is happy and enjoying football.”

Arsenal have struggled with a number of injury problems in the 2024-25 season. As well as Saka and Odegaard, Ben White, Gabriel Martinelli, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jurrien Timber were also doubts before the defeat to Bournemouth.

Timber missed the trip to Vitality Stadium due to a muscle injury and also had to miss team training on Monday. White and Martinelli were used against Bournemouth, while Zinchenko was not used.

Asked about the potential of Timber’s return to action on Tuesday, Arteta said: “It will be close. We’ll have to see how he copes with training with the whole group because he hasn’t done that yet. But hopefully he’ll be pretty close.”

Arsenal have four points from the first two games of their Champions League campaign, following a draw at Atalanta on September 19 and a home win against Paris Saint-Germain on October 1.

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