Emery Confirms Injury Boost As Key Arsenal Man Lined-Up For Return + Monreal Update

Arsenal have been handed a huge boost as Unai Emery has suggested Laurent Koscielny will be ready to return to first team action after the upcoming international break.

Koscielny has been on the sidelines since rupturing his Achilles during our Europa League quarter-final second leg defeat to Atletico Madrid towards the end of last season and he’s been making steady progress in his rehabilitation in recent months.

The Frenchman stepped up his recovery by returning to full training late last month and he’s been working with the rest of first team squad at London Colney in recent weeks with the initial aim of returning to action before Christmas.

It looks like Koscielny is ahead of schedule as Emery has confirmed the defender is improving every day and the boss has pencilled him in to return to first team action after the upcoming international break.

Emery also confirmed that Nacho Monreal won’t be involved against Sporting Lisbon on Thursday night, despite returning to training, as the club want to be cautious with his niggling hamstring issue that’s kept him out of the last five matches.

Emery is quoted as saying by Football London:

On team news
At the moment we continue to have injuries for Mavropanos and Koscielny, he is getting better training with us. Nacho [Monreal] we are taking precaution with him because we don’t want to repeat the same injury. He is starting to train but not doing all with us. He isn’t in the group for tomorrow.

On Laurent Koscielny – How long until a return
The most important thing is his feeling every day. He can feel better each training with us. He is closer to being with us in competition games. But at the moment we are calm, we are happy with him and he is feeling well.

I think he is getting better every day. We are going to think after the international break about how we are going to start with him to play games.

Arsenal face a tricky trip to Bournemouth immediately after the international break so I don’t think Emery will throw Koscielny in to that match but there is a good chance we could see him feature during our Europa League clash with FC Vorskla on November 29.

His return will come as a huge boost as our defence has continued to be a problem this season so hopefully Koscielny will be able to tighten things up once he’s back up to full speed.