Arsenal's William Saliba could be sidelined for up to four months with a back injury, while Jurrien Timber is still weeks away from a return, according to an injury expert. Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka have returned to training and are available for the start of the season.
Saliba's back injury timeline
Saliba carried a back issue into the World Cup and was forced off in the semi-final defeat to Spain. After consulting specialists, he and Arsenal decided against surgery, opting for a 'recovery programme'. He is currently in 'rest mode', according to Mikel Arteta, and unlikely to train in the coming weeks.
Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs, which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics, told Metro: 'We haven't been told exactly what the issue is. But back injuries by nature are complex. Surgery always carries its own risks and recovery burden so conservative management is always preferred.'
'Arteta describing his current situation as being in 'rest mode' is the right phase for him right now. With any back injury protocol, you need to allow any of the inflammation or tissue stress to settle before any progressive loading can begin. Then it will move from rest, to low load movement, to core and stability work before then beginning the football side of things before going all the way back into full training.'
'With something like that you are talking about a three-or-four-month timeline. That is typically what we see for a significant back injury.'
Timber's groin recovery
Timber picked up a groin injury in March and missed the rest of the league campaign, returning off the bench in the Champions League final before withdrawing from the Netherlands' World Cup squad. He underwent minor surgery in June and has been in light training.
Arteta said: 'I think he is on a good trajectory, but there is still a few weeks to go.' He did not rule out Timber missing until after the September international break. Smith noted that surgery during the season may not have been possible, so fixing it in the summer was the best option. 'It is not unusual and very often surgery like that is something that finally resolves a groin injury like that which has been dragging. They will be looking every day at how he responds in training. Arsenal won't be rushing him back too quickly at this point.'
Rice and Saka return
Saka had various muscular injuries last season, including an Achilles issue that ruled him out of five matches in April. He started just two of seven World Cup matches before scoring a hat-trick in the third-place play-off. Rice played in 'terrible pain' during England's World Cup campaign, managing a neural hamstring issue since the turn of the year.
Both have returned to training and featured in Sunday's Community Shield against Manchester City, with Rice coming on at half-time and Saka emerging for the final half-hour. Smith said: 'Rest isn't just the absence of activity, it is proper, structured recovery.' He added that for Saka's Achilles, the off-season gives the tendon time to genuinely recover. For Rice, 'there could be lessons to be learned after six months of neural hamstring pain managed through a season. It is about how they now use the data to catch those accumulative warning signs before they become a six-month problem again.'
