Mikel Arteta offers update on ‘unbelievable’ Arsenal star ruled out of US tour with injury

Mikel Arteta says his Arsenal staff are still working to determine the severity of an injury that has ruled Takehiro Tomiyasu out of the club’s pre-season tour of the US.

A 26-man Gunners squad travelled out to Los Angeles this week to begin a pre-season campaign that will include friendly games against Bournemouth, Manchester United and Liverpool.

Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Aaron Ramsdale, David Raya and William Saliba were not included in the squad after reaching the latter stages of Euro 2024 with their respective nations. Also among the absentees were Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney.

Tierney suffered a hamstring injury during Scotland’s group stage exit in Germany while Arsenal confirmed this week Tomiyasu was staying in London to undergo treatment on a knee issue.

Discussing the Japan international’s latest setback, Arteta bemoaned his ‘unbelievable’ luck and while the decision for him to miss the tour was a precautionary one, the defender is still being assessed by medical staff.

‘It is unbelievable, because the kid works so hard and he had an incident in training and we don’t know yet the extent of that injury,’ Arteta told reporters, football.london report.

‘But for precaution we kept him there and we’ll see what happens. [It happened] this week.’

Jurrien Timber meanwhile is hoping to force his way into the team after missing almost the entire 2023-24 campaign.

Following his move from Ajax last year, the Dutchman suffered an ACL injury on his Premier League debut, returning to action in the final day win over Everton.

‘He is a winner,’ Arteta said.

‘You can see that in his body language, the way he acts, he has worked so hard, I think he is in a really good place at the moment, we are going to have to manage him now in the next few weeks because the load he has been able to do in the last few months compared to the next two weeks is very different but we are very excited about it.

‘He is a leader. He loves to be on show and a big presence in everything that we do. He is very vocal and extremely gifted technically. He is a great addition to the team.’