When Arsenal FC stars will return for pre-season with big decisions to make over Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka

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When Arsenal stars will return for pre-season with big decisions to make over Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka

Gunners are just days away from their first pre-season game of the summer

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Matt Verri

2 minutes ago

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Mikel Arteta is set to have more of his Arsenal stars back next week as they step up their preparations for the new season.

The Gunners returned to the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Monday for the official start of their pre-season, having held a training camp in Marbella last week.

Arteta and his staff have been working with the players who were not involved at the World Cup.

That includes those who were out on loan last season and have now returned to the club, such as Ethan Nwaneri, Reiss Nelson and Fabio Vieira.

Cristhian Mosquera also returned for the start of pre-season, looking to push his case to fill the void left by the injured William Saliba over the next few months.

Goalkeeper Illan Meslier has joined up with his new team-mates after his summer arrival. Marli Salmon and Max Dowman are among the youngsters in the main group.

Riccardo Calafiori, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Gabriel Jesus have featured too, along with Ben White.

The right-back missed the final weeks of last season with a knee injury but his rehab has gone well over the summer.

He was able to take part in training in Marbella and has trained with his team-mates at London Colney this week as well.

Back in training: Ben White

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Jurrien Timber has been back at the training group but is yet to make a full return after minor surgery on a groin issue.

Arsenal's first official pre-season fixture is on August 1 against Girona and Arteta will have the first crop of World Cup players back before then.

Those players are entitled to a minimum of three weeks off after their involvement for their countries. After such a hectic campaign last term, Arsenal might also opt to give certain players additional rest.

Kai Havertz is expected to return in the next few days, after Germany were knocked out at the round-of-32 stage.

The forward has been training at his former club Bayer Leverkusen this week in preparation for that.

Piero Hincapie and Viktor Gyokeres have also now had their three weeks of holiday after the World Cup and should return next week.

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Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli made it slightly further with Brazil but they too are set to be back at the start of next week and are likely to be in the group that travels to Spain.

That match will come too soon for Martin Odegaard, who reached the quarter-finals with Norway.

Their defeat to England was on July 11, meaning Odegaard will be available to train again in the week commencing August 3.

Martin Odegaard’s Norway were beaten by England in the World Cup quarter-final

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Arsenal travel to Dublin to play Real Betis two days later, before hosting Borussia Dortmund and Como.

Eight Arsenal players were involved in the World Cup right through to the final weekend of the tournament and will therefore have a very limited pre-season.

August 10 is the earliest those players can be back in training, six days before the Community Shield against Manchester City.

That gives them 11 days to build their fitness in time for the Premier League opener, when Arsenal host Coventry on August 21.

David Raya and Martin Zubimendi played very little football this summer and so should be ready to hit the ground running.

Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Mikel Merino featured more but still did not have a huge workload.

The big decisions for Arsenal to make are over Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka.

Rice has been managing neural pain in his hamstring for more than six months. He was also hampered by sickness during the World Cup.

Saka, meanwhile, was held back for much of the tournament by Thomas Tuchel, who revealed he was still playing through the pain of an Achilles injury.

Both will be assessed when they return to London and it might be determined that more rest is needed to get them back to full fitness.

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