Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta may have already revealed who will play centre-back against Leicester City on Saturday if Ben White isn't fit.
White was signed for a reported £50million in the summer transfer window, joining the Gunners from Graham Potter's Brighton after enjoying a productive 2020/21 campaign that saw him establish himself as an England international.
After a shaky start during a 2-0 loss to Brentford, the 24-year-old has since begun to demonstrate his immense talent, conceding just four times in his last seven appearances across all competitions.
However, the ball-playing centre-back could miss the trip to the King Power Stadium on Saturday afternoon, with Arteta claiming that he was suffering from a sickness bug going around the club at the minute.
After the 2-0 win against Leeds United on Tuesday night, the Spaniard said: "There is a bug going on.
“We lost Pablo (Mari) today as well as he wasn’t feeling great. Ben had it as well for the last day or two. He wasn’t feeling great, so we decided to take him off.”
Arteta has since reaffirmed that White isn't fully fit, admitting that the former Leeds loanee may miss out against the Foxes.
Speaking on Friday morning, Arteta said: "He hasn’t trained yet, so again we’d have to wait for today to see how he’s feeling, and make the decision then."
Still, the Gunners head coach has previously spoken about the versatility of Japanese international Takehiro Tomiyasu, claiming that the former Bologna defender could be the perfect option at centre-half.
"We followed him (Tomiyasu) for a while", Arteta said back in September.
"We needed a full back who could be very versatile, can play as a centre-back, can play in a back three, Tomi has this capacity."
The 22-year-old has often been deployed as a centre-back for his country and was utilised in the centre of defence 17 times for Bologna last term.
Perhaps Arteta will decide to partner the tough-tackling Gabriel with Tomiyasu against Brendan Rodgers' side.
