Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Arsenal midfielder Santi Cazorla is not likely to be fully fit for the start of the 2016/17 Premier League season.
Cazorla, 31, missed five months of the 2015/16 campaign with a serious knee injury, but made his first pre-season appearance during the Gunners' 3-1 win over Chivas on Sunday.
The Spaniard has become a key player in Wenger's midfield over the past two seasons, but Wenger says that Cazorla is only expected to be ready towards the end of August - two weeks after the season opener against Liverpool on August 14.
"He is our technical security in midfield and we missed him for five or six months last season," he told reporters. "At the moment he is not completely there on the fitness front. That’s why I took him off at half-time.
"He’s a bit behind the others physically but I think he will be alright, maybe not on August 15th, but at the end of August he should be alright."
The next stage of Arsenal's pre-season tour sees the Gunners head to Scandinavia, with a match against Viking in Norway on August 5 followed up by a clash against Pep Guardiola's Manchester City in Sweden two days later.
However, Wenger is still without a fully fit squad, with a number of Gunners who played at Euro 2016 still yet to return from their summer breaks.
“Not all of [the international players will be back],” he told the club's official website. “But [Aaron] Ramsey will be involved, [Alexis] Sanchez will be involved.
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“The latest players coming back will not be involved - that's [Mesut] Ozil, [Olivier] Giroud and [Laurent] Koscielny - they are the last ones and I don't think they will be involved on the tour on Thursday, but all the others will.”
Wenger will likely be without Per Mertesacker until the end of the year, with the centre-back sufdfering a knee injury during pre-season.
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The Gunners boss has confirmed he is targeting a new defender and another striker in the transfer window, but declined to comment on whether Valencia centre-back Shkodran Mustafi or Lyon forward Alexandre Lacazette would be heading to north London this summer.
With no new defender arriving so far, Wenger says he may consider starting summer signing Rob Holding against Liverpool after the 20-year-old scored against Chivas.
