White, Mosquera and Hincapie return to Arsenal training ahead of Leeds clash

Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie have returned to training at Arsenal’s London Colney base, handing manager Mikel Arteta a timely defensive boost ahead of the Premier League’s resumption next weekend.

All three players had been sidelined and unavailable for international duty during the break. White and Mosquera were both nursing hamstring injuries, missing one and five games respectively, while Hincapie — who made the bench against Brighton despite a muscle problem — has now resumed full training, with footage shared by the club confirming his return.

The news is particularly welcome given that centre-back William Saliba remains absent with a long-term injury. Arteta has urged patience over the Frenchman’s recovery, saying: “He is in rest mode at the moment. He had to do almost nothing, an aggravated injury, so it’s going to take some time to heal. We know that.” Saliba is understood to be targeting a return in November.

There is one fresh concern, however. Winger Christos Tzolis reportedly sustained an injury during Greece’s 2-2 home draw with the Netherlands and is facing approximately three weeks on the sidelines.

Arsenal return to action on Saturday, 19 October, hosting Leeds at the Emirates Stadium — their first game since a 3-0 defeat at Brighton ended a six-game winning run to open the season. Arteta has made clear he wants that loss to serve as a motivating force. “We need to feel the pain,” he said. “Today we need to take this lesson very, very seriously because it’s going to happen. I think we need to look at it in isolation first and get the learnings and then we can put it into the overall picture.”

The Gunners face a demanding schedule of nine games in 27 days, including Champions League fixtures against Lille and Bayern Munich, a Carabao Cup trip to Fleetwood Town, and Premier League visits to Nottingham Forest and home games against Everton and Liverpool.