Arsenal handed boost as Jurrien Timber returns to first-team training ahead of Wolves game
|Arsenal begin the 2024-25 Premier League campaign with a game against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Emirates Stadium on Saturday, and they have received a huge injury boost ahead of the clash.
The Netherlands international defender Jurrien Timber has been pictured back in training with the first-team and is expected to be named in the matchday squad this weekend.
The full-back was missing in action when Arsenal took on Bayer Leverkusen and Lyon in the Emirates Cup last week having sat out of their final game of the pre-season tour of the United States against Liverpool.
It emerged that Timber had been struggling with a load-bearing injury, and fans feared he might have suffered a setback having spent the majority of last term out of action after rupturing his Anterior Cruciate Ligament.
Gunners manager Mikel Arteta provided a positive update concerning the Ajax star at the weekend and the club have uploaded a picture of him training with his teammates on their official website.
Timber had only featured in the Community Shield game against Manchester City and the Premier League opener against Nottingham Forest last season before the injury ruled him out for almost the rest of the campaign, only returning to face Everton on the final day of the season.
He will now be looking forward to establishing himself as a key player under Arteta this season but will face stiff competition given the current squad depth Arsenal have at the back.
While Timber can play as a centre-back and at both right-back and left-back, the presence of the likes of Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior and even summer signing Riccardo Calafiori in the team poses a huge threat to his chances of breaking into the starting XI.
He will not be satisfied with just a spot on the Arsenal bench this season, and it will be intriguing to see how he fares in the coming weeks and months.