Jesus provides injury boost for Arteta as he returns to training with Brazil

Gabriel Jesus has made a welcome return from injury with Brazil ahead of a crucial run of fixtures at club level for Arsenal.

The forward has missed the Gunners last five games in all competitions after picking up a hamstring injury in the 2-1 Champions League win against Sevilla at the end of October.

However, he is now back in training with his national team ahead of a crunch World Cup qualifier against Argentina on Tuesday.

Fabrizio Romano posted on X (formerly Twitter): 'Gabriel Jesus in full training today for Brazil and ready to be part of [Brazil manager, Fernando] Diniz squad for the upcoming game.

'Positive news for Arsenal as he is set to be back with [Mikel] Arteta's squad soon.'

Arsenal boss Arteta will surely be keeping a keen eye on the qualifier in Rio De Janeiro, with Mail Sport reporting earlier this week that Arsenal's medical staff were unhappy that Jesus had been called up by Brazil.

They feel he is yet to recover from the injury that has prevented him turning out for Arsenal in recent weeks, with the Gunners crashing out of the Carabao Cup and suffering a damaging defeat at Newcastle in the Premier League without the former Manchester City man.

Arteta had previously urged caution in terms of rushing Jesus back from injury too quickly.

At the start of November, he said: 'We need to be cautious because we need to treat it in the right way.

'He’s already pushing everybody and wants to be back as quickly as possible, and we need him, so that’s great.'

The north Londonders had hoped that Jesus would remain in England over the break but FIFA rules state that national teams are entitled to call up players to assess injury issues themselves.

Brazil manager Diniz explained: 'We are going to bring Gabriel [Jesus] to find out the real conditions, because we still have 15 days until the games, so we believe that he can be able to play, because I like him a lot.

'We have 24 players on the [squad] list, and if something happens to him we won't need to change the squad.'

He added: ‘I trust the player and him being here. I talked to Gabriel and he didn’t come here without planning.

'We are doing things with great care. As soon as he arrived, we gave him a new MRI scan. We are treating him very carefully.

‘If he is in the right condition, he will be available against Argentina.'

Brazil have suffered defeats in their last two qualifiers, and now take on the reigning world champions without both Neymar and Vinicius Jr due to injury.

Arsenal will want to make sure Jesus returns to London in good condition given they have a vital run of fixtures in the run-up to Christmas.

Arteta's side have eight Premier League games to get through before the turn of the year as well as decisive Champions League clashes against both Lens and PSV.