Gabriel Jesus hasn’t played for Arsenal since before the World Cup because of a knee injury, but he’s in line to return to the squad in the near future

Mikel Arteta has refused to confirm whether Gabriel Jesus has travelled with the Arsenal squad for Thursday’s Europa League round of 16 first-leg clash against Sporting CP.

Three months and 14 games across all competitions later and Jesus’ return is not far away. For example, this morning he took a huge step towards being back in action for Arsenal by participating in a full training session at London Colney before the squad flew out to Lisbon.

Now, if the 25-year-old has joined the likes of Martin Odegaard, Fabio Vieira, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and William Saliba in traveling to Portugal then questions are to be raised with regard to being named in tomorrow evening’s matchday squad for the clash against Sporting CP.

However, in classic Arteta fashion, he has opted to give very little away in terms of team news, instead choosing to keeps reporters and supporters alike guessing: “News on the squad will be tomorrow,” the Spaniard said in the pre-match press conference. “We have brought a few players and you will see who is available.”

Meanwhile, Vieira – the £34m signing from Sporting CP’s rivals Porto last summer – was spotted boarding the plane in footage released by Arsenal’s official Twitter account on Wednesday afternoon and was due to speak to the media to mark his return to home soil but has been suffering with a sore throat.

Nevertheless, the playmaker will be fine for the last-16 clash and his knowledge of the opposition makes him even more useful to Arteta: “For sure, that’s the first thing that we did,” the Spaniard admitted. “It’s great to have the knowledge of someone from the country.”

But it remains to be seen what the situation is with Jesus. What might fill fans with some confidence for a potential return to the squad is the positive update from the past week.

With that said, Arteta appeared to suggest that he will reintegrate Jesus when the time is right: “We will try not to rush him back, we will try to make a fair assessment between what he needs and when is comfortable and as well giving the team a boost that it’s going to need in the next few weeks for sure,” he told football.london.

“Everything is going well, he needs time as well to get himself that confidence and that physical state that is necessary to compete with a free mind and once he’s free to do that, we will throw him in.”