Arteta confirms Calafiori injury status for Manchester United

Mikel Arteta has not ruled out the possibility of Riccardo Calafiori returning to action in time for Arsenal’s Premier League match against Manchester United on Sunday afternoon after the Italy international was spotted back in training on Friday morning. 

Calafiori has been out of action since picking up a muscular injury in the warm up prior to Arsenal’s eventual 2-1 victory at home against Brighton and Hove Albion on December 27. He has missed eight matches across all competitions since then: Five in the Premier League and one apiece in the FA Cup, Champions League and league cup. 

Calafiori, along with fellow Arsenal defender Piero Hincapie, was spotted back in Arsenal training on Friday morning. 

Arteta has since had an opportunity to provide an update during his pre-match press conference ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League match at home against Manchester United. The Spaniard admits that there is still a decision to make, but has not ruled out the possibility of Calafiori featuring this weekend. 

“We still have another training session, so we’ll see tomorrow, after that, to assess everybody and make a decision, first of all in the squad,” Arteta said. 

Arteta was also asked how Arsenal’s balance was affected during Calafiori’s absence. 

He replied: “We are trying to adapt the qualities of our players and certain players give us more dynamism and more options in terms of the spaces that they can occupy and where they are comfortable and how they link between them. 

“Others are probably more static and more fixed, more positional. Riccardo’s quality is that he can be very fluent in many spaces.”