Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal fans may still have to wait a while to see Riccardo Calafiori make his debut.
The Italy international completed a move to the Emirates from Bologna earlier in the week, with the Gunners fighting off competition from the likes of Real Madrid and Juventus for his signature.
Calafiori immediately flew out to join his new teammates on their pre-season tour of the United States but wasn’t in the squad for their 2-1 defeat to Liverpool in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
And Arteta has admitted it may be some time before we see Calafiori take to the field for his Arsenal debut, with the defender — who can play as a left-back or centre-back — suffering from jetlag and yet to train with his new team.
“We had to manage him. He had a very busy 48 hours before he took his flight and joined us here, and then it was the jetlag, it’s a lot of things,” Arteta responded when asked if Calafiori would be ready to play in the coming weeks (via the Arsenal website).
“He hasn’t trained with the team yet and we want to build him up slowly to get to know him first. We’ll have plenty of time to see him.
Arsenal have two more friendlies remaining before they begin the new Premier League season at home to Wolves on August 17th, first taking on German champions Bayer Leverkusen before a meeting with French giants Lyon — both matches taking place at the Emirates Stadium.
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