The boss first discussed Leandro Trossard, who was sent off in the first half of Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Bayern Munich.
“Yes, there’s another test with Leo today, we’ll have to see how he’s feeling,” the boss said at the Sobha Realty training center on Friday.
“It doesn’t look like much, so we still have a few hours and we’ll have to see, there’s a possible chance (that he’ll be available).”
While Leandro has avoided serious injury, Mikel confirmed that Gabriel will spend some time on the sidelines, but the boss is backing our central defender to make a speedy recovery.
“I think he’s developing really well. We’ll have to wait a little longer for the scans to be more precise in terms of timing.
“I’m quite confident, especially the way Gabby takes every injury and the way he’s pushing everyone, it shows that it’s not going to be that long.”
One of our Brazilian stars took an important step forward in his recovery this week as Gabriel Jesus took part in a friendly behind closed doors on Thursday.
While Mikel is keen to get our number 9 back into the team, he also wants to avoid any blow to Gabi.
“We’ll have to see, obviously he’s been out for 11 months and you need that progression, you need to see how his body reacts and what else he needs.
“With the players we have available, we also have to get the balance right in the team, so that’s a good thing. He’s very, very close at the moment.”
Finally, the boss was asked about re-scans of Victor Gyöckeres and Kai Havertz and when the strikers will be able to return to action.
“Not yet, but they’re getting closer, so we’re very positive about both of them. The good thing is we’ve got another option now.”
“We lost one player, two or three, at some point we lost six front-line players, and the team kept winning and was very, very efficient, so I think that’s very positive.”
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