Mikel Arteta is quietly confident that Thomas Partey will be fit to face Newcastle next weekend.
The 27-year-old summer signing from has only managed 278 minutes of Premier League football since joining from Atletico Madrid in October.
He was initially forced off at half-time of the 3-0 match against Aston Villa last month, before suffering a recurrence of the same injury in the defeat to Tottenham last month and hasn't played since.
However, he recently stepped up his recovery and has resumed training with the first team as pictures showed at London Colney on Friday.
Partey wasn't involved in the 4-0 win against West Brom, as revealed by football.london, with the Arsenal medical team pencilling in the FA Cup match against Newcastle on January 9 as a potential return date for the £45million man.
"He hasn’t trained fully with us, but he has done most parts of training the last few days," said Arteta after the win at The Hawthorns.
"He is feeling good and we will assess him. He needs another two or three good sessions to see if he is 100% available to play. If that is the case, great news for us."
When asked whether Partey will be like a new January signing, Arteta admitted that the return of 'The Octopus' can help "transform" his team in a positive way.
"Absolutely. We are in January and I think he’s played two and a half games," he said.
"That’s all and he was our main signing. So yeah. We’ve been missing him. He brings something different to the team, he’s a player with an enormous talent.
"But as well someone that can transform the team the way we want. It’s great if we can have him, keep him healthy and I think will contribute in a really positive way."
