INJURY UPDATE : Odegaard, Jesus, Partey – Injury news and Arsenal return schedule ahead of West Ham Cup tie

One player who typifies that race for fitness is Gabriel Jesus, who picked up a muscle issue against Sevilla last week and also missed the Sheffield United game. Mikel hopes to have him back sooner rather than later, given the striker’s capacity to return quicker than expected.

“With him, I’m honestly not going to give [a timeframe]. I did it once and got it totally wrong. We need to be cautious because we need to treat it in the right way. He’s already pushing everybody and wants to be back as quickly as possible, and we need him, so that’s great.”

However the news isn’t so good when it comes to Thomas, who has played just 15 minutes in our last 11 matches thanks to a groin issue, and then an unrelated muscular complaint picked up in training before our trip to Spain last week.

“I think he will be out for weeks,” Mikel revealed. “I don’t know how long but he’s got another appointment today and we will see more after that.

“It is a big concern because when Thomas is fit and available and he’s been part of the team, we’ve seen the results and the impact that he had. This season we have more protection especially for that reason because we know in the last two seasons what has happened and the result it had on the team. We had to address that and now it has happened.

“It can happen in football and I’m so sorry for him because I think he is doing every single thing he can do right to be there. He was gutted and we are for him, but he needs to lift himself up again with