Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard latest news and return dates

Arsenal have some major injury concerns ahead of two huge games this week against Sporting and Manchester City.

The Gunners are reeling after Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth followed their Carabao Cup final defeat and shock FA Cup exit at the hands of Southampton.

Mikel Arteta’s side bid to get back on track when they play Sporting in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday, leading 1-0 from the first leg.

They then face Manchester City in a huge title showdown at the Etihad on Sunday.

Arteta has been handed a fresh injury scare over Declan Rice after Bukayo Saka , Martin Odegaard , Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori all missed the Bournemouth defeat.

With that in mind, here is the latest Arsenal injury news and return dates…
Declan Rice sparked fresh injury concern when he missed Arsenal training on Tuesday.

Rice completed the full 90 minutes of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth but was absent when Arsenal trained on Tuesday ahead of the Sporting game.

Arteta will issue an update on Rice and the injury situation when he holds his press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Martin Odegaard has not had any luck with injuries this season and disaster has struck again with Odegaard forced to sit out the loss to Bournemouth.

Arteta revealed that the Norway international picked up a “niggle” during the first leg win over Sporting, a game in which he was brought off in the 70th minute.

Odegaard did not train with the Arsenal squad on Tuesday, suggesting he will not be fit to face Sporting.

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Potential return date: Sunday April 19, vs Man City (A)
Bukayo Saka withdrew from England duty last month, having joined up late after Thomas Tuchel said he wanted to manage the workload of some key players.

The winger was thought to have been rested for the FA Cup quarter-final loss to Southampton, but concerns over his fitness have increased after missing out against Sporting and Bournemouth.

Saka has still not returned to training which suggests he is no nearer to a return, but Arteta is hopeful of having his vice-captain back as soon as possible.

"We need everything," Arteta said after the 2-1 loss to Bournemouth.

"First of all we need everybody fit and available.

The ones that are not involved, the ones that are not with us, that are really big, important players, we need them immediately with us.

"Then we're going to be much better.

Then the other ones, we need to stand up.

Me the first one.

Embrace this challenge and go for it."
It is approaching a month to the date since Jurrien Timber last played for Arsenal.

The defender was forced off in the 2-0 win over Everton and has subsequently missed the last five games with an ankle problem that also saw him withdraw from the Netherlands squad for games against Norway and Ecuador.

Timber has still not returned to training and Arteta is set to provide an update on him in the pre-Sporting press conference on Tuesday.

Riccardo Calafiori played the entire 90 minutes against Sporting last week, but like Odegaard, was left out of the squad completely for the visit of Bournemouth and it’s not clear as to what his issue is.

The Italian, now, has not played consecutive Premier League matches since the start of December.

It is possible that Arsenal are simply just managing Calafiori’s minutes to avoid a serious injury, but he did not train on Tuesday.

Potential return date: Wednesday April 15, vs Sporting CP (H) or Sunday April 19, vs Man City (A)
Ecuador said, during the international break, that Piero Hincapie had returned to Arsenal “to begin his recovery process” following medical tests over an unspecified injury.

Hincapie was ruled out of the Southampton game and also missed out in Lisbon, but returned to the matchday squad at the weekend and will be pushing to start on Wednesday night.

Mikel Merino is in a race against the clock to play for Arsenal again this season and be fit for the World Cup, after having surgery on a foot injury in February.

In a new update on the Spaniard, Arteta has said: “He's going to push every boundary.

“He's out of his boot, doing quite a lot of exercises already.

“He reacted really well to the surgery and he's got no pain.

I'm sure there is a chance to make that period shorter - if there is a person that can make that shorter, it's Mikel.”