Mikel Arteta issues fresh Arsenal injury update on Ben White, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka

Mikel Arteta has provided an update on the availability of several Arsenal players for their Champions League match against Athletic Club.

Soon after their team plane landed in the Basque Country, the Gunners manager spoke at a press conference on Monday. The squad had an opening training session earlier today, featuring Christian Norgaard and the return of William Saliba.

There were just shy of half a dozen notable omissions, however. Among those absent were Ben White, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard. football.london understands has a "minor issue", which is a fresh injury blow for the team.

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Arteta issued an update on his status and that of multiple other players while speaking in Bilbao on Monday evening. Asked whether Odegaard was available, he replied: "No."

The manager also added, "Gabby, Kai, Ben and Martin are still out, unfortunately." Arteta later confirmed that Odegaard has not flown out with the team and, instead, is back home in London.

Asked whether there was an update on Saka, he acknowledged there is not. "No, I think he's still quite a lot of things to go through, very early to understand when, which week he's going to be available, but he will certainly be pushing to be available as quick as possible."

Arteta also addressed the possibility of rotation in the Champions League now that the league phase is getting underway. "Yes, well, it will depend upon the availability of the squad; the form of the players," he said.

"Now, unfortunately, we have a few players already out, so that is already limited in certain positions. But hopefully, we come to the point that the competition and the level of performance of the players is that high that we are able to do that very efficiently to win more football matches; that's the objective."