Speaking to the media on Friday, Mikel Arteta had good news for Arsenal fans.
“I think everybody except Mo [Elneny] and Gabriel Jesus should be fine,” Arteta said when asked for injury updates for the Forest clash.
“It’s a bit early (for Jesus) still. He’s doing really well since his operation. Hopefully, he can start to do some stuff next week.”
That’s good news all around, with the implication that Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jorginho, Folarin Balogun, and Reiss Nelson are all available again after their respective injuries.
Even the Jesus update is largely positive, as he was never expected to be available for the Forest game. A return to some form of training next week would be a promising step.
Zinchenko has been sidelined for the entirety of pre-season with a muscular injury, but he made a brief cameo return to the pitch during the charity Game 4 Ukraine event last week.
Jorginho, Balogun, and Nelson all suffered training setbacks during pre-season, and none of them were fit to play against Manchester City at the weekend.
But all four have been in training this week, and Arteta has seemingly now passed them all fit.
As for Elneny, the Egypt international has been out for most of the year so far with a knee injury.
Arsenal aren’t going to rush him back into action, but it looks like he’s getting closer and closer now.
