Arsenal handed massive Jurrien Timber boost amid Mikel Arteta timeline admission

Mikel Arteta has admitted that he is hopeful that Jurrien Timber could make his comeback from an ACL injury before the end of the season.

The Dutch international gained plenty of plaudits for his performances in pre-season after arriving from Ajax in the summer. However, he has unfortunately been out since injuring his knee in the first Premier League game of the campaign in August against Nottingham Forest.

He revealed in an interview with football.london in December that the recovery process had been going positively. «I'm making good progress and also the knee is reacting very well so I'm happy with the way things are going,» he said. «Let's just see how things are going and how long it will be still.»

Since then the Timber has been making progress and made his first steps back out onto the grass during the mid-season training camp in Dubai. The 22-year-old has been ramping up his recovery ever since and speaking ahead of Arsenal's Premier League clash with Newcastle this Saturday, Arteta revealed he will hopefully be back with the squad in the coming weeks.

«I really hope so,» the Spaniard said when asked if Timber would be seen again before the end of the season. «He's doing really well. He's been with some players on the pitch. He’s going to start to do some bits with us on the pitch in the next week or so. Then we'll have to see how he's doing, his confidence level, his fitness level. Hopefully the answer will be yes.»

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Timber is one of a few players Arsenal are hoping to have back in the near future. There is a strong hope that Thomas