William Saliba’s return to the field this season has not been ruled out by Mikel Arteta, despite the fact that his back issue prevented him from traveling to Newcastle on Sunday.

The France international has missed the last seven games as Arsenal’s title defense has stalled; following a record of just one victory in five games, the Gunners have passed the ball to Manchester City.

Saliba played in every Premier League game prior to being sidelined by a bothersome back problem, so his loss has been felt keenly by Arsenal, who have conceded in each of the games he has missed.

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Last week, Arteta noted that the rehabilitation process was taking longer than anticipated.

“Not a lot of progress,” he said when asked for an update on the injury.

“He’s feeling better every day but he’s not been able to have any activity around the first team so we don’t expect him to be with us (at Newcastle).

“It’s about the healing process; pain-wise and the things he can do off the pitch he’s in a good place, but we have to build that capacity with the right load so that he’s able to contribute to the team.”

When questioned about when it was appropriate to acknowledge Saliba was done for the year, he responded, “We are not there yet because we’re always hopeful and the players are wanting to play. We’ll let you know if that happens, but we hope not.

Given that Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu were injured during Tuesday’s victory over Chelsea, Gabriel Magalhaes’ injury could have become even worse for Arsenal’s defense.

“We will have to see tomorrow how he is,” Arteta said at his media conference on Friday. “But he could not finish the game so that was a big sign. We’ll have to see tomorrow.”