William Saliba is a major doubt for Arsenal’s Carabao Cup semi-final showdown against Chelsea with Riccardo Calafiori still ‘weeks’ away from returning to action.
Mikel Arteta has been able to call upon his first choice centre-half pairing again in recent games with Gabriel Magalhaes returning from injury at the end of December.
But speaking at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday, Arteta revealed Saliba, along with Leandro Trossard, could miss the trip to Stamford Bridge.
Calafiori meanwhile has not featured since the victory over Crystal Palace in the previous round of the competition, pulling up in the warm-up ahead of the game against Brighton on 27 December.
The Italy international has missed his side’s last five games, with Arteta revealing last Friday the FA Cup clash against Portsmouth would come too soon for him.
But the former Bologna star would appear to still be some way off a return.
‘He’s progressing, but we don’t know,’ Arteta said.
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‘A few weeks, probably, but we don’t know exactly yet.’
Calafiori’s absence has been compounded by Piero Hincapie also picking up a knock.
The Ecuador international was Arteta’s preferred option to fill in at left-back ahead of Myles Lewis-Skelly but was forced off with a hamstring injury in last week’s draw with Liverpool.
Arteta was unable to offer any real clarity with Hincapie will return, ruling him out of tomorrow’s trip to west London.
Also also remain without Cristhian Mosquera who is also still a few weeks away from returning from the ankle injury he suffered in early December.
