The Spain international is progressing well in his recovery and, although he won’t make Saturday’s game at home to Leicester, he could be back in action next week.
The Gunners are taking on Paris Saint-Germain and Southampton and Merino is itching to make his debut.
“Tomorrow [against Leicester] is too soon. Next week we’ll see,” said Arteta. “He had partial training today.
“He’s been working so hard. It’s looking good. It’s about the healing of the bone and how mature that is to expose him to contact basically.
“We are trying to keep him in the cage, because he has been pushing everybody - all the physios, all the doctors, everybody!
“He is ready to go and he really wants it. I think we are comfortable now to start exposing him with contact and he looked really good in training.”
Merino excelled for Spain in the summer at Euro 2024 and played in every game as they went all the way.
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