Arsenal boss provides positive injury update on Granit Xhaka

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Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka is ahead of schedule in his injury recovery and could be back before the end of the year.

Xhaka has been out since suffering a serious knee injury during Arsenal’s win over Tottenham in the North London Derby in late September. He was initially ruled out for 3-4 months so he wasn’t due back until some point in January.

However, the 29-year-old has been making excellent progress in his recovery and Arteta has confirmed the Swiss international midfielder is already ‘pushing himself’ in training.

The boss suggests that Xhaka is on-course to return ‘sooner than expected’ and he hopes to have him available again before the end of the year so we could see him back next month.

Arteta also had more positive news after confirming there are no fresh injury concerns in the squad following Arsenal’s disappointing defeat at Liverpool last weekend.

Arteta told Arsenal.com:

on the latest team news…

No, no news. Everyone is fine so far.

on Granit Xhaka’s fitness…

Hopefully he will be a little bit sooner than expected, he is training and pushing himself and all the staff so hard like he always does. He is in a good place, he is evolving well and hopefully we can have him a little bit earlier. It is still a bit early to decide.

on whether it could be before the end of the year…

I hope so, yes.

It would be great to have Xhaka back early as – although I’m not his biggest fan – even I can admit we’ve missed him at times during his absence.

Sead Kolasinac is the only other Arsenal player currently on the sidelines with the full-back nursing an ankle injury so the squad is in terrific shape ahead of Saturday’s clash with Newcastle United.

Arsenal welcome the Magpies to the Emirates this weekend sitting fifth in the table so victory would see us move level on points with fourth placed West Ham.

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