The FPL Gameweek 9 team news and injury updates so far

The October international break is now very much over, with nine Premier League managers holding their pre-Gameweek 9 press conferences on Thursday.

Chris Wilder also caught us on the hop on Wednesday morning, holding his pre-match presser five days before Sheffield United take on Arsenal.

Among the headline injury news from today’s press gatherings was the announcement from Arsenal that Alexandre Lacazette (ankle) has returned to training.

When asked about the French striker’s possible involvement at Bramall Lane on Monday, Unai Emery said:

Today is his first training back with us. He finished it well and he’s feeling well with his injuries. Tomorrow we will be training again and he will be with us. We will decide.

The most important thing is that first, he is training, then secondly it’s whether he can be with us and it depends how he can feel in the next days training with us, whether his ankle is not giving him any more problems.

It’s positive for us that he’s started training and that he’s a possibility for Monday. I don’t know whether he’s ready for 90 minutes or on the bench. We’ll decide that over the next days, but it’s very important for him to come back to training with us.

Reiss Nelson (knee) will be out of action until November but Emery added that Kieran Tierney is ready to feature after his recent return from injury.

The Arsenal boss said of the former Celtic left-back:

He’s ready to play. Now we have two options in that left-back role with Sead Kolasinac and him. We’re going to play a lot of matches after Monday. We will need every player.

It depends how he comes into the first training with us, Sead, after his international matches. We now have two players in that position and we can use one on Monday, it depends how they are, one or the other.

The Blades have doubts over three players, with Wilder saying yesterday:

John Fleck pulled out of the Scotland squad, Oli McBurnie had an issue with his knee. And David McGoldrick. We’ll give them enough time and opportunity to be available to pick from.

We’ve got to clear them, first and foremost, we can’t take risks on them. I don’t think that’ll be fair on players that are fit, as well. They have to do a clearance session, they’re working extremely hard over this international period.

There were positive-sounding comments from the Blades’ boss on John Lundstram, with Wilder replying when asked about his lack of rotation:

I believe in stability, especially from the back. I thought the midfield three have done outstandingly well: Fleck, Lundstram and Norwood.”

We haven’t had Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s official pre-Gameweek 9 press conference yet – that comes on Friday morning – but there were some helpful comments from the United boss on Paul Pogba (ankle) and David de Gea (groin) in an interview he gave Sky Sports on Wednesday.

Solskjaer said:

David [de Gea] needs a scan. I think he’ll be out. It certainly looked it anyway judging on last night so it’s just one of those things.

No chance [of Pogba being fit]. Paul had an injury, came back, he worked really hard. He came back and played a couple of games, maybe played through the pain barrier. We had a scan after the Arsenal game and he needed a few weeks’ rest in a boot, so hopefully, he won’t be too long. But he won’t make this game, no.

Asked about the rest of United’s injury situation, Solskjaer said:

I can’t tell you 100 per cent [who] is going to be fit as something might happen. But hopefully, Aaron [Wan-Bissaka] and Anthony [Martial] will last the training this week and be available for selection. If it’s for half a game or 30 minutes I don’t know but let’s see where they’re at.

James Maddison pulled out of the England squad over the international break after suffering from illness but Brendan Rodgers provided some reassuring words on the Leicester midfielder today.

The Foxes’ boss said:

He’s fine. He obviously had a knock leading into the Liverpool game and then he was ill whilst he was away with England. He came back, trained a few days this week, and looks fine.

He’s trained well, he was very good today. Yesterday he was obviously getting back out again, and earlier on in the week, but I expect him to be fit and ready. He was really comfortable today in training, he worked very hard.

Leicester otherwise have a clean bill of health, with Dennis Praet due back in training tomorrow after having stayed in Belgium for personal reasons.

The Foxes are up against Burnley this Saturday, with the Clarets set to be without Johann Berg Gudmundsson (hamstring) for several weeks.

Sean Dyche confirmed that late decisions will be made on the fitness of Jack Cork (shoulder) and Ashley Barnes (groin) but confirmed that Erik Pieters has trained all week.

Dyche said:

Johann, he won’t be figuring. Unfortunately, he got injured on international duty and a reasonably serious hamstring injury. It certainly won’t be days. It will be more like weeks. I don’t know how many yet but it’s serious enough to speak in that way.

Corky is a touch-and-go one with a shoulder blade injury that has got a fine fracture in it. Ashley Barnes has got a tight groin so we’ll have to make judgement calls on those two. It’s not a ‘no’ though. That’ll be a judgement call on the risk and rewards of playing.

Erik’s trained all of this week so he’s clear.

Spurs reported on Thursday that Christian Eriksen (dead leg) is being assessed ahead of Saturday’s visit of Watford.

Giovani Lo Celso (hip) and Ryan Sessegnon (hamstring) are back in full training but Mauricio Pochettino implied that those two players won’t feature in Gameweek 9, saying:

Today they are far away off the level that they need to be involved. There are a lot of players ahead of them but it’s good news that they, from now, will be involved with the team. But it’s a massive step.

Asked about Spurs’ returning contingent from international duty, Pochettino added:

Today we expect to arrive this afternoon Sonny, from North Korea, but other players arrive in a very good way, very good mood.

Hugo Lloris (elbow) looks set for an extended period on the sidelines, meanwhile.

The Lilywhites have re-signed Michel Vorm this week, with Pochettino saying of the Dutch goalkeeper:

He’s going to need time but we trust he was training. Of course, he will need to be on the pitch, in the goal, but I’m sure he’s going to be ready as soon as possible, quick.

Brighton take on Aston Villa this Saturday, with Graham Potter confirming that Leandro Trossard (groin) is back in training but unlikely to start in the Midlands.

Potter said:

We need to be careful with him, he’s probably not ready to start at the weekend, I think that’s fair to say. But still, he’s training with the group and we’ll make a decision this afternoon and tomorrow as to whether he’s in the group.

Jose Izquierdo (knee) and Bernardo (knock) are Potter’s only absentees.

Dean Smith also has a near-clean bill of health, saying on Thursday:

Jonathan Kodjia is back to full fitness, he’s been training with us. The only one who’s missing is Jota, who ended up having to have a hernia operation on Friday. So he’s out for a couple of weeks now.

Engels is fine, he’s trained ever since the Norwich game. Chester’s had another couple of weeks [of training], he’ll probably play some minutes in the under-23s game against Fulham on Monday to get him up to speed.

Ralph Hasenhuttl said of Southampton’s injury latest ahead of the Saints’ trip to Wolves:

I think they are all fit back. No injuries so far, so we only have Moussa Djenepo and Cedric Soares still injured.

Djenepo and Soares may return in Gameweek 11.

Everton, whose boss Marco Silva will deliver his press conference on Friday, have announced that Jean-Philippe Gbamin has undergone surgery on a tendon injury in his right quadriceps muscle, which will keep the defensive midfielder out for around three months.

The Toffees face West Ham in the Saturday lunchtime kick-off, with Manuel Pellegrini confirming on Thursday that Lukasz Fabianksi (hip), Michail Antonio (hamstring) and Winston Reid (knee/match fitness) are the Hammers’ only absentees for that clash.

Declan Rice has recovered from illness.

Quique Sanchez Flores said of Watford’s current injury situation:

We have Etienne Capoue, Troy Deeney, Prödl and Success, all of them they are out. We try to get a good solution for the problems. This is our mentality.

Predicted line-ups and more detailed information will be found in the Team News tab, which is being refreshed over the coming 24 hours.

We’ll have our regular early-evening round-up of Friday’s press conferences tomorrow, along with a video/podcast summary of all 20 pressers.