[Photos] Two long-term injury victims snapped in Arsenal training

Per Mertesacker and Chuba Akpom were out on the training pitches today as the Arsenal squad were put through their paces ahead of tomorrow night’s trip to Everton.

Arsene Wenger and his coaching staff put the players through the final preparations ahead of what’s a hugely important game at Goodison Park and two of our long-term injury victims were present at London Colney today.

Mertesacker is yet to play a single minute of competitive action this season after suffering knee ligament damage during our pre-season friendly win over Lens back in July.

The defender returned to light training earlier this month after undergoing an intense rehabilitation programme back in Germany and he continued to work on his fitness in north London today.

Per isn’t ready to return to the first team just yet and it will probably be in to the New Year before he’ll be considered fit and available for selection but it’s great to see him back out on the training pitches.

Akpom has made just one appearance for the first team this season [against Nottingham Forest in the EFL Cup] after being ruled out with a serious back injury back in late September.

However, the youngster is on the road to recovery as he’s also been back in light training as he looks to get himself fit enough to get back in action at the turn of the year.

There was no sign of Aaron Ramsey in training today as he’s been ruled out of the Everton game with a hamstring injury while Shkodran Mustafi has also been ruled out for three weeks with his own hamstring complaint.

Check out some photos from today’s session courtesy of Arsenal’s Getty account: