Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is adamant Pablo Mari is in his plans.

The defender hasn't been seen so far this season due to injury.

Arteta said, "He's looking really good in training. Obviously, he had a difficult surgery, He had a screw and sometimes when you have an external body inside it can react in an unexpected way and it was causing some inflammation and irritation in the joint all the time and his ankle was swelling. So we had to take that out again which was a little bit of a setback, but he's been working really hard and looks really good in training.

"We've been hit really hard with some big injuries, not only Pablo but Cedric as well, since he joined here he's had two or three different incidents. Gabi Martinelli has been out for such a long time, Calum Chambers got injured three weeks after I was here and he still hasn't played a single game. He's still recovering. It is what it is.

"What I can say is that the approach of those players and the way they've been trying to work to get back to their best has been phenomenal in all cases. Let's hope that we can have them, we can use them and they can feel part of what we're doing."