Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and William Saliba travel with Arsenal squad for Bournemouth game despite injury fears

Arteta provided a rather grim injury update on Friday afternoon (Picture: Getty)

Arsenal have been handed an injury boost with Bukayo Saka, William Saliba and Declan Rice all seen arriving with the travelling squad for Saturday’s clash against Bournemouth.

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Mikel Arteta has been contending with a growing injury list, revealing six players have been unable to train this week due to various injury issues.

Gabriel Martinelli has missed the last three games with Declan Rice going off injured at half-time during Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham. Bukayo Saka also suffered a knock in the north London derby, a game which Leandro Trossard also missed through injury.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Arteta revealed Saliba and Fabio Vieira were also dealing with knocks.

Having not been pictured in a latest training gallery shared by Arsenal on Friday afternoon, it appeared the chances of some of those individuals being involved on Saturday were slim.

But video footage of the Gunners squad arriving at their team hotel in Bournemouth shows Saka, Saliba and Rice among the group ahead of tomorrow’s 3pm kick-off.

Footage shared by @FPLTommyGun shows Saliba stopping to sign a few autographs followed by Rice. Another clip shows Saka signing shirts for young fans.

Arteta was unsure over which, if any, of his injured group would be in contention against the Cherries when he addressed the media on Friday.

‘Declan hasn’t trained yet, we have a session in an hour, we’ll get more news about him,’ Arteta said. ‘Gabi [Martinelli] hasn’t trained, Leo same situation, Saka, same. They are all in the same pool.’

He continued: ‘Willy had a knock, Fabio wasn’t involved,’ confirmed Arteta. ‘We have to assess them today.’

Asked why Arsenal’s injury crisis had escalated in recent weeks, Arteta said: ‘Different reasons. Some happen in training, some are knocks, some are very small muscular niggles.

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‘But as well the load coming from before the national team and then after the national team the load went through the roof and the demands continue to be really high.

‘The fact we had three or four out already didn’t give enough time to some of them to have the exposure they needed.’

‘It’s about now , it’s about Bournemouth which is the most important game of the season we have now,’ Arteta added when asked if next weekend’s game against Manchester City would impact his team selection tomorrow.’

MORE : Six Arsenal stars not spotted in training ahead of Bournemouth clash

MORE : Mikel Arteta praises underrated Arsenal defender amid William Saliba injury concerns

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